Fact and Folklore: Revamped
by x-lady-lestat-x
Summary: (Notes: 10 years ago I submitted this same basic story. Edits, style, and world changed drastically. M for bloodshed. S3, becomes AU.) Daniel is infected by a parasites that give him vampire-like superpowers along with dark impulses that threaten his sanity. When the NID gets involved, is all hope for a cure lost? Or is Daniel lost no matter what?
1. Part 1: Vampires?

Part 1: Vampires?

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The city seemed entirely abandoned despite the clear, sunny day. The Stargate was in a spacious park. The gate was positioned to face a distant grove of trees. To the team's left was the path leading to a small city; to the right was the path towards larger, single-residence homes. The team headed towards the town.

Col. Jack O'Neill and Teal'c led the party down the street with Dr. Daniel Jackson and Capt. Sam Carter looking around. Outside of the park, the buildings lining the narrow, treeless street were plain-looking, practically windowless, two-story row houses.

They could all hear recorded sounds coming from the insides of the houses. Some of the noises were music, others seemed to be radio announcers or television-style entertainment shows.

"There's nothing wrong with the atmosphere or the air, so I wonder why no one's outside," Sam said. "Admittedly, the UV rating for today could easily be at a harmful level during certain hours, but right now it's fairly mild. It's weird, though. This part of the planet gets less than 8 hours of full dark and over 20 hours of light-18 of those are with both suns in the sky. Why would absolutely no one be outside when only one sun is still up?"

"Maybe it's a holiday," O'Neill said lightly. "Or worse, maybe tomorrow's Monday."

"I hope their reluctance to venture outside is not due to an infestation of large insects," Teal'c said, tightening his grip on the staff-weapon as they continued down the street.

There was a large building at the end of the street. It had pillars out front, and was four stories tall with bars on the basement and ground-floor windows. It was the tallest building in sight.

"That looks like town hall," O'Neill said, nodding towards the building.

A scream came from one of the homes they were passing. They were sure it wasn't any sort of recording.

The team stopped and looked towards the building.

"Jack...?" Daniel started to ask.

O'Neill nodded.

The team positioned themselves on either side of the door of the house where the scream had come from, their weapons ready.

"Please, don't!" a small, shrill voice begged.

O'Neill knocked on the door. "Everything all right in there?"

Another scream came from inside, this time it was muffled by something.

"We're here to help," Daniel called.

They could all still hear the frightened, muffled sobbing.

"No assistance is needed," hissed a woman's voice in an angry tone as the girl's muffled screams continued.

"Jack, we have to do something," Daniel whispered urgently.

O'Neill sighed. "We're coming inside," he called towards the door. He tried the door. It was unlocked.

A door swung open, they heard someone running and then all that remained was a quiet sobbing.

"Hello?" he called into the darkness.

No lights were on in the house. The only window was in the rear of the building, and it was covered securely with thick curtains.

The light flooded down the hall, past the small kitchen, and into the living room.

Sam and O'Neill flipped on the lights that were mounted to their guns, and Daniel pulled out a flashlight, shining it into the dark.

In the living room they found the small girl, tied tightly to a wooden chair.

Daniel rushed past Sam and O'Neill, and started untie her. "You're going to be OK."

The girl began to calm down, her cheeks stained with tears and dust.

Sam and O'Neill shone their lights throughout the room when, out of nowhere, a woman's hand reached forward and grabbed Daniel by the shirt collar, dragging him with her into the dark corner.

The little girl screamed again, then held her breath in shock as she saw her would-be savior dragged back by the monster.

Sam and O'Neill aimed their weapons and lights at the corner.

The woman was pale with long black hair and black clothing. Her fingernails were long and sharp. She held Daniel in place now with one clawed-hand around his throat. As her attention darted between the three remaining intruders, her eyes caught the light and reflected like two shiny gold coins.

"What are you doing in my house?" the pale woman demanded.

As she spoke the team could see her pointed teeth pressing against her lips.

"The better question is why you have a kid tied up in your living room," O'Neill replied.

The woman looked even angrier. "I have the permit posted on my door-in case you hadn't noticed-so you have no right to be in here."

"We're travelers and…" Daniel began to say, but the woman looked at him and tightened her grip so he couldn't say anything else. He placed his hand on her wrist very lightly, hoping the gesture would tell her she was holding on too tightly for him to breathe.

"Permit?" Sam asked. "To do what? Torture a child?"

"She is a criminal," the woman assured quickly. "_Your _criminals are given to _us_."

"What was her crime?" Teal'c asked.

The woman glared at them again. "You are trespassing." She smiled, her teeth looking very sharp in the light of their flashlights. "It may be within my rights to do whatever I wish with you as well." She tightened her grip and her claws dug in a little deeper.

"Let our friend go," O'Neill began coolly, "and we can straighten this out with the people who run your town."

"Where we come from if anyone screams for help people are allowed to enter a building," Sam added, trying to justify their intrusion.

Daniel made a move to get away, grabbing onto the woman's hand and pulling it from his throat as he darted towards the living room.

The woman, however, leaned forward quickly and tried to recapture him. Her claws caught his forearm and shredded the skin as she gained a more secure hold.

O'Neill pulled the trigger, firing a single shot into her outstretched arm.

She refused to let go. Her mouth was open in a snarl. Her fingernails dug in deeper as she pulled Daniel in closer again with such strength Daniel though his arm would be pulled out of its socket. The woman's blood oozed down her arm and onto Daniel as she reached for him with her other hand.

Teal'c fired his Zat gun, stunning both the strange woman and Daniel.

The woman hit the floor, unconscious, and Daniel hit the rug beside the girl, crippled by the electricity.

Teal'c kept his aim on the woman as Sam and O'Neill rushed forward and dragged Daniel a few paces farther from the woman. Sam crouched by Daniel while O'Neill straightened and re-aimed his weapon.

Daniel readjusted his glasses with the unharmed hand, visibly shaking.

"You all right?" O'Neill asked Daniel casually.

Daniel nodded a little as the reality of his still- bleeding injury finally struck. He started putting pressure on his forearm. "I don't think she was going to let us just walk out of here with the girl." His long sleeved green sweatshirt was soaked with blood from the elbow down.

Sam nodded, putting a hand on his shoulder. "You did the right thing."

Daniel looked to the girl, and Sam helped him sit up to face the child. "My name's Daniel. Are you alright?"

The girl recoiled from Daniel, almost thrashing as much as she must have been against the woman. "No, don't _touch _me!"

Daniel was shocked.

"It's OK, he's trying to help you," Sam insisted kindly to the girl. Sam's focus, like Jack's was more on the threat still posed by the woman than on the wellbeing of the girl.

"Anyone but him," the girl whimpered.

Daniel was even more confused. He'd just ended up as a hostage because he was trying to free her from the ropes, and now she didn't even want his help. He stood and backed away from her towards Teal'c, his hand still keeping pressure on the stinging, bloody scratches. "I-I guess I'll wait over there," he said reluctantly, joining Teal'c near what appeared to be a kitchen.

"DanielJackson, I will treat your injury," Teal'c volunteered, removing a package of bandages and disinfectant from the lower pocket of his vest.

The girl started to calm down immediately.

Jack continued to point his weapon at the woman and gave a nod to Sam.

Sam crouched and started to untie the girl. The ropes were knotted more tightly than she'd originally thought. "Can you tell me your name? I'm Samantha, but you can just call me Sam, if you'd like."

The girl was quiet, thinking of nothing else but her own release.

"Can you tell us why you are so scared of Daniel?" Sam continued, finally freeing her hands and moving her attention to the ropes holding the girl's feet.

She still didn't answer, nervously chewing on her lip. "He's one of them," she whispered so quickly and quietly that Sam was the only one who heard anything but a ragged breath.

Teal'c put the remnants of Daniel's bloody shirt sleeve and cleaning cloth into a plastic baggie then began to wrap Daniel's arm in a fresh bandage.

"One of who?" Sam was finally a little annoyed with the ropes. She let go of the ropes and started to dig into the pocket of her vest. "The knot's too tight." She found the pocketknife and pulled out the blade. "Don't be afraid I'm going to just cut the ropes."

The girl nodded a little, still very shaken.

Sam cut the bindings and before she could say another word, the girl slipped from the seat and shot out of the door, into the sunny neighborhood.

Sam and Jack rushed after her and Teal'c tucked the trash baggie into Daniel's backpack before he and Daniel followed.

The girl was already at the end of the street, turning the corner and out of sight.

"Let her go," Jack ordered.

SG-1 didn't chase.

"Is it just me, or are all the people around here just a little _strange_?" Jack asked the group with a hint of frustration.

Daniel shut the woman's door as he stepped off the porch. "If these people don't like to come out of their houses during the day, maybe we should go to the town hall and explain what happened before the sun sets. If we don't I bet we'll have a whole _city_ full of people thinking we're criminals," he suggested.

Sam nodded a little in agreement as she glanced at her watch. "According to our calculations, the last sun should be setting in half an hour. Leaving now might make it look like we actually _are_ guilty of something."

"I agree," Teal'c said simply.

"Sure," Jack said casually, setting out towards the building. "What's the worst that could happen?"

The others followed.

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Jack, Teal'c and Sam all began to wake up. They were lying on the stone floor, all three inside the same dimly lit prison cell. Their weapons and vests had been taken.

"Sir?" Sam asked nervously as she sat up.

Jack pushed himself upright and gave a small shrug. He looked at Teal'c. "Do you know what happened?"

Teal'c sat up. "We entered through the front doors of the town's administrative building. I do not recall how we came to be prisoners."

"Daniel?" Jack called, looking through the bars at the other empty cells in an attempt to find Daniel.

"He's not here, Sir," Sam pointed out.

The room they were in was fairly small, just large enough for three separate cells along one wall and separated by thick metal bars. Each cell seemed designed to hold up to four prisoners. Directly in front of the center cell was a door leading out of the holding area; it had a single small window fitted with heavy glass. Each cell was equipped with some sort of an electronic lock, but only the cell holding SG1 was fitted with a single, barred window, two bars spaced just far enough to fit an arm through. There were no overhead lamps so the only source of light was the shaft of electric light coming through the tiny window from the building across the street.

Jack pressed a button on his watch so it would light up, and he gave a heavy sign. "We've lost 7 hours."

Sam looked shocked, but Teal'c was unphased. "Indeed," he replied simply.

They all made their way to their feet.

Jack walked over to the locked door to examine the mechanism. "Carter? Do you think you can get us out of here?"

Sam checked her pockets for her tiny flashlight, but it was gone along with the rest of her gear. "It's too dark for me to do much but..." Sam went to the door, but the door leading outside opened and they all froze, hoping that the newcomer hadn't heard their discussion of escape.

A red-haired man escorted Daniel into the center cell, a small amount of light coming into their dark room as the door opened.

"Daniel," Jack called, standing as they all went to the bars. "What happened?" Like the others, Daniel wasn't wearing any of his gear.. His glasses were missing and his torn long sleeved shirt had been taken away, leaving him in his khaki t-shirt. He looked almost as pale as the guard and the bandage was missing from his arm.

The man placed his palm on the black locking mechanism and the cell let out a loud click, swinging open.

Daniel walked in and sat down heavily on the bench inside, his eyes fixed on the floor, dazed. He was exhausted and felt dizzy.

The guard shut the door, pressed his hand on the lock again, and it made the same sound as it relocked. He ignored the others and spoke to Daniel. "The first sun will be up soon. When it sets we will bring you The Test." He turned to the others. "At the setting of the second sun you will all be evaluated. By dawn of our first sun tomorrow you will all be informed of your status."

"What is that supposed to mean?" O'Neill asked the guard.

The guard addressed O'Neill first. "You will either be found innocent and released or sold to one of my countrymen for your crime." He nodded towards Daniel. "He will be given The Test then rank based on his skills and abilities. He will then either be made a citizen, or he will be put to death."

"Why is Daniel's crime different from ours?" Sam demanded. "And what _is_ our crime?"

The guard didn't answer.

"We need to talk to your superiors," Jack said finally. "This has just been a big misunderstanding. We're not exactly from around here."

The guard was quiet for a moment, as if lost in thoughts of his own, and finally repeated what he had already said. "By dawn of our first sun tomorrow you will all be informed of your status." He turned around and left. They heard another electronic click and the door to the holding area locked, leaving the room in almost complete darkness.

"They aren't telling us anything," Sam said in a frustrated voice as she hit the bar with her hands. "And it sounds like they're not going to listen to anything we're telling them."

Daniel sat quietly.

"DanielJackson, are you not well?" Teal'c asked from the bench supplied to the group's cell.

"No, Teal'c I'm actually not well at all," Daniel said quietly, his head still bowed as he stared at the floor.

"_What happened?_" O'Neill asked again.

He looked up, his eyes catching a shaft of light and his pupils glinting gold the way a cat's or a dog's do when exposed to light in dim conditions. His eyes looked the same as the strange woman's had.

"S-So you're one of _them_?" Jack asked. "Whatever they are..." he added.

"That's why that girl we rescued didn't want Daniel near her," Sam explained. "Did that woman infect you with something?"

Daniel nodded a little. "That's what their doctors think. She scratched me. When you shot her, her blood infected me with the parasite they all have." He showed his un-injured arm to his friends. "That was deep enough for stitches and now, nothing."

The others were quiet, waiting for any other sort of explanation.

"They didn't say much but I found out some important things. _This_ is not airborne or transmitted just by contact," Daniel added quickly. "It's in the blood. It has to enter someone's blood to change them but sometimes is takes just a scratch or a bite."

"Bite?" Jack asked softly, confused.

"Did you figure out why that woman had the kid tied to a chair?" Sam asked him.

Daniel nodded a little, giving a nervous laugh.

Even in the dark Jack, Sam, and Teal'c could all see the points that had formed on the tips of his canine teeth.

"I think they're vampires," Daniel admitted. He gestured towards himself, giving another nervous laugh when he touched his own shirt with a shaking hand. "I-I've been turned into a vampire." His laugh turned into a sob and he brought his hands over his eyes and face.

"Don't be silly," Jack said happily. "One little trip to Ole Doc Fraiser and you'll be right as rain."

Daniel sat up straight again, continuing to explain what he knew. "This has been on their planet hundreds of years. They don't know a way to stop it or reverse it, or they'd have given it to me.

Jack still seemed hopeful, but Sam and Teal's were still concerned.

"Am I right to believe that a _vampire_ is the creature from the black and white films you have shown me?" Teal'c asked.

Sam nodded. "And those color ones from about ten years ago."

Teal'c raised an eyebrow.

"When I woke up they had me in a hospital room and were doing blood tests or something. They just said that tonight they're going to _rank and evaluate_ me," he reminded as he took his hands away from his face, evidently calming down a little. "What they mean is they want to see if I can do any of that stuff like the vampires from the movies and legends: super strength or speed, move things with my mind, read thoughts, or make people see things... They're not even sure what _abilities_ someone is going to have until they're evaluated," Daniel explained. "If they decide I was a smart enough as a normal person, and I can do enough of those weird things, they'll give me a higher rank." He sounded a little panicky again as he continued. "But before that they give me _The Test_: they want to make sure I'll kill someone to stay alive."

"You mean by _drinking their blood_? Like vampires do in those _entirely fictional horror movies_?" Sam asked in disbelief.

He nodded, licking his dry lips a little. "Since they don't have a cure they have some sort of law about people who have been infected. It's along the lines of someone's sense of morality being able to accept the laws of nature. Everyone who's been changed has to prove that they're willing to kill anyone they bite so they don't overpopulate the world with… with _us_. It's become an important part of their culture," he added a little more calmly.

"Way to keep things in perspective," Jack said.

Daniel ignored him and continued. "If I _did _kill the person, and my _rank_ is high enough, they'll let me go."

"And if you don't pass the test they'll kill you?" Jack asked.

Daniel nodded. "They'll tie me to the ground in a place behind this building, and when the second sun rises the light will be strong enough to burn me to death. Basically, they'll burn me alive for something I didn't have anything to do with."

"With both suns up the temperature is almost the same as Earth," Sam assured. "Our readings didn't show that the sunlight from either sun was powerful enough to burn a human to death."

"Not regular humans," Daniel reminded. "Vampires."

"Right," Sam said distantly. "So that part about burning in the sunlight is actually true?"

Daniel nodded a little. "It must be."

"But why a death sentence?" Jack asked.

"Their planet is mostly made up of humans, but right now we're on an island continent made up of the infected people. The criminals of the rest of the planet are sent to this island. It's sort of like what the British Empire did in Australia when..."

"Daniel," Jack scolded before he could say much more.

"Right," Daniel agreed, realizing how off track he'd almost become. He was very tired and finding it hard to concentrate. "The vampires have complete control over the island's government, and in this region they assume that the only humans are criminals or escaped slaves. All the criminals are sold to the citizens _as_ slaves. They can actually do anything they want to their slaves," Daniel said in amazement. "With the right paperwork they can even kill them. That's why the woman kept saying she was allowed to have the girl."

"And that is what they plan on doing with us?" Teal'c asked, finally a note of anger and passion in his voice. He'd been a slave for most of his life, and was not intending to be enslaved again.

"Yes," Daniel said simply. "And if a _citizen_ wants to infect a human, criminal or otherwise, they have to get a license. If a person is changed without being licensed, the person who infected them is put to death immediately and the newly infected still has to pass all the screening. They don't want the ratio of humans-to-vampires to be too high for fear that _all_ life on the planet may end."

"So that's why _you're_ in hot water," Sam finished.

Daniel nodded as his eyes shifted to the small, barred window above Teal'c. "Bringing us back around to the little test they want to put me through tonight. The first sun is going to be up in a little while, but I'm going to wait until the second one is up before trying to open the door."

"How?" Jack asked.

He didn't answer right away. "If I do have any _abilities_, maybe one of them can get us out of here. I don't know how drained I'll be after tapping into it, so I'm not going to try anything until we have a clear shot to the gate," Daniel explained. "By the time the _first _sun rises everyone, even the guards, should be out of here and at their homes. When the second one comes up everyone in the whole town is going to be asleep. Some guards live in the basement, but we will have a little time before they get up here."

"How do you know?" O'Neill asked suspiciously. "And didn't you say they never told you anything?"

Daniel smiled a little, nervously. "It was the guard we just talked to: his name is Breck. Even before _you _asked him the questions he was showing _me _all of the answers."

"And what is that supposed to mean?" O'Neill asked again, just as he had asked the guard a few minutes earlier.

"I think I could read his mind," Daniel admitted. "Or maybe _he_ was the one who was projecting information into my head."

Everyone was a little shocked.

"Telepathy?" Teal'c asked. "Well, I am still pleased that there were no large insects."

"Amen to that," Jack and Daniel said at the same time, looking at eachother as if to wonder whether Daniel had read his mind or whether he and Jack simply agreed.

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The building had been much quieter over the last thirty minutes. It seemed that Daniel had been right. Now that the second sun was rising, the upper floor of the building was completely deserted.

Daniel finally stood. He'd been saving his energy since the first sun rose so he could try to use some kind of ability to open the door. He stumbled a little as he walked towards the front of the cell. He was a light-headed, almost the way he used to feel in Abydos when he'd forgotten to drink enough water. It had been only 10 hours since they first arrived on the planet, but his mouth was so dry it felt like he hadn't had food or water in a week.

"Still doin' ok?" O'Neill asked from the floor of the shared cell beside Daniel's. His hat was over his eyes as he rested, but he'd heard the slight shuffling noise.

"Peachy," Daniel lied. Holding his hand over the lock he tried concentrating on several different goals to see if he possessed any other useful ability. _Maybe I can just make things move if I think hard enough... _"I don't even know where to start," he confessed quietly.

"Is the second sun up now?" Sam asked, brushing off her pants as she stood and went to the window to look outside.

"Yep," Daniel answered simply, still concentrating hard on unlocking the door somehow.

"It's pretty overcast out there," Sam commented, craning her neck for a view of the sky through such a small cell window. "Are you sure?"

"I can feel it," Daniel whispered. With his free hand he pointed up and to the right. "First sun," then pointed lower and slightly left, "and the second." He turned back to the door to give his full attention again.

"What is it that you are attempting to do, DanielJackson," Teal'c asked.

Just then Daniel felt a small spark of energy running through his hand and into the lock. The door beeped and unlatched.

Teal'c and O'Neill got to their feet.

"Nice job Danny-Boy," O'Neill praised at a loud whisper as he jumped to his feet.

"Now I just have to figure out how to do that two more times," Daniel caught his balance on the door as he almost fell again.

"Take it easy," Sam said calmly, turning back to Daniel. "We're not in any rush yet, so take your time."

He nodded and stopped to rest.

"How'd you do that?" Sam asked.

"No clue," Daniel admitted as he followed the bars to the other door and put his hand against the lock. He felt the electricity surge through his hand, and the door immediately beeped as the lock was thrown. His fingertips were left somewhere between tingling and numb.

Sam, Teal'c, and O'Neill quickly left the cell.

"Any intel on where they left our gear?" O'Neill asked.

Daniel was still balancing against the bars, hesitant to let go of them to unlock the final electronically sealed door that would get them out of the holding area.

Sam peered through the small window, seeing a deserted entryway with a desk and another door leading outside. She ducked down again quickly in case there were any other security people wandering. "It looks like they were examining our equipment, but most of it is on a desk just outside this door," she announced quietly.

"Do you need assistance, DanielJackson?" Teal'c asked, offering his hand to his friend.

Daniel accepted the extra balance until he reached the wall with the keypad. He let go of Teal'c and used the wall to balance. Just as he'd done a moment ago, he placed his hand on the lock and gave it a zap. It beeped before releasing the lock. Daniel shook his hand a few times and stretched his fingers. For a few seconds his fingers had gone completely numb from whatever electricity had just been sent through them.

Jack raised a finger to his lips, and motioned for them to rest against the wall. He slowly pushed the door open.

"There's noone out there," Daniel assured. He tilted his head a little, listening. "But they're on their way from about three flight down. We need to go right now," he said with more urgency.

Jack led them through the door first, and everyone grabbed their gear.

Daniel slipped on his heavy jacket and started to unfold the hood hidden in the collar.

"What are you doing that for? Just grab the rest of your gear so we can get out of here," Jack said, hurriedly putting the nick-knacks where they were supposed to go.

"Vampires," Daniel said simply, still unraveling the hood.

"Point being?" Jack said, slipping the strap of his gun over his shoulder. He was ready, but Daniel was slowing their progress.

"Sunlight, sir," Sam said with a note of surprise in her voice, almost as though it hadn't occurred to her either. "Since it seems he _has_ been changed into one of these... um... _people_ he'll need to cover up before going outside."

Daniel pulled the hood over his head and grabbed the sunglasses from the pocket.

"Right," Jack said as distantly as Sam had when the topic of vampires and sunlight had been brought up earlier. He reached in the bag and dug out the gloves, handing them to Daniel as he secured the bag and helped Daniel slip the pack onto his back.

Daniel slipped on the gloves. "I'll need a little help seeing where I'm going," he admitted nervously as they all headed towards the exit. He knew they had to leave, but the idea of sprinting through a sunny street when the light could potentially seer the skin from his bones was more than a little unnerving.

"I will lead you safely to the Stargate, DanielJackson," Teal'c said as they jogged down a hall towards the sunlight that was coming through the windows of a barred door.

When they burst through the doors into the light Daniel called out in pain, pulling his hood even lower with one hand, and holding out the other as he kept running so he wouldn't run into anything.

Teal'c grabbed him by the outstretched arm. "It is not very far," he assured as comfortingly as he could in the time of urgency.

The four of them ran as fast as they could manage past the houses and towards the park where the Stargate was located.

They heard some distant shouts from the building they'd just left as they made it around the corner. The gate was in sight.

"I'm dialing," Sam called from the distant lead, quickly punching in the symbols as the others caught up.

Teal'c let go of Daniel by the DHD as he and Jack looked back the way they'd come to make sure they hadn't been followed. Daniel was doubled over, trying to catch his breath and keep the light off of his skin. He was almost too dizzy to stand up straight.

The Stargate opened and Sam dialed the security code into her wrist device to open the iris on the other side. "Ready," Sam called, turning to her friends.

Daniel fell to his knees, his muscles finally giving out. With every heartbeat the black splotches in front of his eyes were blocking out what little he could see in this overexposed world.

"Don't even think about giving up now, Danny," Jack called as he and Teal'c both got him to his feet by either arm.

Teal'c put one of his arms under Daniel's shoulders to brace him as they headed up the stairs to the gate.

Three heavily-covered townspeople came around the bend in the street just as the team stepped through the wormhole and disappeared.

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Sam appeared on the platform first, followed by Jack and Teal'c bracing the now-unconscious Daniel.

"We need Dr Fraiser down here," Jack called to the control room.

General Hammond called for the medics over the intercom before coming down to the embarkation room.

Teal'c lowered Daniel to the floor and peeled away the hood and dark glasses.

One of Daniel's cheeks was almost burned black, as if he'd been burned by a fire. Quite a bit of his jaw line also had a peeling red burn across it where the hood couldn't protect him from the sunlight coming through the clouds.

"What happened to Dr. Jackson?" the General demanded as the gate room door opened and he and the medical team came through.

"Let's just say he needs a blood transfusion as soon as possible," Jack answered seriously towards the doctors.

Doctor Janet Fraiser and the nurses gathered around Daniel and put him onto a gurney.

"You should probably put him into quarantine and watch out for his teeth," Jack added, turning back to the General. "We've landed on planets where our team has been turned into cavemen, incubators for gigantic bugs, and now we've opened the gate to a place with vampires."

"Vampires?" the General asked gruffly.

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Briefing room

Daniel was still unconscious and in the quarantine area. Sam and Jack had just finished explaining the situation to General Hammond and Dr. Fraiser in the briefing room. Teal'c sat at the table only having occasionally added relevant information.

"...And that's when we stepped through the Gate," Sam finished.

"Vampires?" the General asked one more time, still in shock despite all of the information the team had gathered on the situation.

"What they've described seems to be consistent with the results of Daniel's blood work," Dr. Fraiser agreed. "He's been infected by some sort of parasite that's just smaller than a red blood cell. It's like malaria, but instead of entering and just destroying the red blood cell, they _consume_ the cells."

"So that's what's making him anemic?" Sam asked.

Janet nodded. "The parasites don't impair red blood cell production but there are so many that the body can't keep up with the need. On top of that the parasite is extremely photosensitive. When it's exposed to ultraviolet light, it combusts and destroys surrounding, otherwise healthy, tissue."

"Did you figure out how it's transmitted?" General Hammond asked her.

"There are heavier concentrations of the parasite in the mouth, eyes, and digestive system, but they're located throughout his blood. Daniel was right when he told his team that it's not airborne and not transmitted by regular physical contact. It needs to somehow enter a person's bloodstream. Most likely by saliva from a bite or by mixing blood. In the three hours since the team has returned, Daniel's fingernails have actually grown a quarter of an inch. In Daniel's case, I don't think this can be transmitted by a scratch - scrapings from under his fingernails didn't leave behind any of the parasite."

The doctor finally got up and typed a few things on the computer so a diagram of the digestive system popped up on the screen. "Because of where the parasites are in the body, it makes sense that ingesting the blood would be the best source of relief for an afflicted person. These parasites have completely shut down his normal digestion. When the parasite consumes the blood, the waste it secrets is everything the human body needs to function. People infected with this parasite don't need food, and would probably get sick if they tried to eat anything. We won't know for sure until he wakes up, but I think he may still need to keep drinking water so his usual production of blood wouldn't be impaired. The parasites also secrete several stimulants that will give the person a boost of energy and feeling of euphoria."

"Like a drug?" Sam asked.

The doctor nodded. "That's how the parasite keeps its host motivated to _bite _ someone for blood rather than solely rely on transfusions: the fix is faster when more of the parasites are fed."

"What's with the teeth and eyes? And the claws, for that matter?" Jack asked. "It's all this parasite right, and not like his DNA's being rewritten? 'Cuse you know how much I hate it when that happens."

She pressed another key on the computer and a generic photograph of a mouth showed up on the screen. "It's all due to the parasite. In the mouth the parasite is cleaning the teeth, removing harmful bacteria, and repairing damage. It's sharpened the teeth by moving the foreign particles and the natural minerals in his saliva to the very tips of the canines."

She pressed another button. A cross-section diagram of an eye came onto the screen.

"Because they are parasites that live in the dark, and need a host that's adapted for functioning in low-light conditions, some of them have gathered near the retina." She pointed towards the retina on the diagram. "The parasites themselves are so sensitive to light that they expect the host to remain in as little light as possible. Long story short, they reflect and magnify any light they're exposed to. Theoretically his night-vision will be better than 20/20, even in pitch black conditions. Because of this effect, when lights are shone in the host's eyes, the eyes magnify it and seem to shine it back. The only thing I can compare it to is how the eyes of nocturnal animals react."

Another diagram of an eye popped up on the screen.

She pointed towards the iris. "Even though he's still unconscious I can tell that it's also affected the way his eyes will focus. The parasites are acting like a contact lenses so Daniel doesn't need his glasses. As far as I can tell, his eyes will be able to focus more precisely than anyone I've ever examined."

"Bottom line, Doctor," the General began. "_Can you cure him?_"

"Under the microscope the parasite is vulnerable to all levels of ultraviolet light, but Daniel's last blood test shows that over 60 percent of his blood has the parasite attached to it. Any sort of UV procedure _would _kill him. From the tests we've run in the lab, none of the standard medications can effectively destroy the organism."

"And the not-so-standard-ones?" Jack asked.

Dr. Fraiser sighed. "There are hundreds of medications designed to interfere with the activities of a parasite. We've only scratched the surface. I still can't explain how he generated the electrical charge from his hands, and we can't really assess any other changes until he's stronger and, more importantly, awake." She flipped the slide.

An image of a large red blood cell with a worm-like smudge attached.

"The most interesting part is what these parasite actually look like," she continued. Dr Fraiser clicked the next slide, a larger magnification. What had before been a smudge now clearly appeared to be an exact image of the Gao'uld symbiotes the team was already familiar with.

Most of the team reacted openly.

"So those big, galaxy-conquering parasites have something to do with these little ones?" Jack asked.

"I don't know for sure," Dr. Fraiser admitted. "Since the Gao'uld share a genetic memory maybe Daniel will be able to answer that question."


	2. Part 2: PX5-332

Part 2: PX5332

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Daniel opened his eyes. The room was spinning and his eyes were stinging from the bright lights. He was laying in one of the isolation rooms. He could feel his arm being pinched by a needle so his eyes shifted to the bedside. There were a couple different tubes running into his arm: one clear and the other with blood. The monitor beeped every few seconds in unison with his heart.

The nurse writing notes on a clipboard gasped a little when she saw his clawed-hand move up to rub his eyes. She was wearing a hazmat suit. "Doctor Fraiser?" the female nurse called to the observation window located about a floor above the room itself. "Doctor Fraiser!"

The doctor spoke into the microphone near the monitor. "I'll be right down." She went to the phone by the door and dialed a few numbers. "General? Daniel's awake."

"Is everyone else ok?" Daniel mumbled to the nurse in a weak voice as his attention shifted to the length of his fingernails. Blinking a few times to assure that he wasn't imagining it, he felt the sharp edges with his thumb.

The door opened behind him and sprayed the new-comer with some sort of disinfectant.

Daniel laid his hands back on the bed. His lips were dry and his pointed teeth were getting caught up in his mouth. The spinning, thankfully, had stopped.

"Daniel? How are you feeling?" Dr. Fraiser asked him as she approached his bed. She, like the nurse, was wearing a hazmat suit.

"It's a little bright," he said quietly.

Dr. Fraiser turned to the nurse who'd called to her. "Cindy, can you lower the lights a little please?"

She nodded and went to adjust the lighting.

Half of the lights in the room went out, including one of the two lights directly above him.

"Better?"

Daniel nodded. "What actually happened to me?" His touched the place on his chin that had been burned the worst, but the skin was smooth and healthy. "Wasn't I burned?"

This time Dr. Fraiser nodded. "Third degree burns in some places. Do you remember escaping from the cell on PX5-332?"

So many of his memories were a jumble. He kept thinking about a small, weather-worn house at the edge of sand dunes on a beach, but he had no idea why. He rubbed his eyes again. "Vampires, right?"

"Then you remember you've been infected by the same parasite they have? It feeds off of red blood cells, so it's been busy adapting your body to make it easier for you to acquire the blood transfusions. The parasite is extremely photosensitive, so you were burned while escaping from the planet. We have something new for you to consider: there is a small chance this infection has a connection to the Gao'uld."

Daniel was starting to remember the things the guard, Breck, had shown him. "Every host reacts to the parasite differently…" he said distantly.

General Hammond, Jack, Sam, and Teal'c all filed into the observation room where Janet had been receiving reports.

"... So every host develops different abilities," Daniel continued calmly. He looked at Janet as she checked his monitors. "Everyone who's been infected burns in the light, can see in the dark, heal fast, and has more strength and speed than normal people. There are three ways the physical changes manifest. I'm what they called Level 2. My teeth and fingernails are sharp all of the time."

"Is that more of what the guard was telling you?" Jack asked over the intercom before Daniel could explain anything else.

"Yes," he said simply. "But I think that I might have been picking up other things from the people in their little hospital, not just the guard in the jail."

"Telepathically?" Sam asked skeptically over the intercom. "We didn't really talk too much about it at the jail, but..."

Daniel interrupted, "I'd think it was crazy too, but it can't be that far from the truth since I actually managed to zap that lock with just my hands."

"Do you know of any cure to the parasite?" Dr. Fraser asked him.

"T-They don't have one," Daniel answered.

_The NID will be even more interested in this thing when there's no cure. They're bound to find a way of turnin' this into a weapon_ the General thought.

"They'd still want it even if there was a cure," Daniel said absently, still trying to remember anything Breck, the jailhouse guard, might have said to him and the little murmuring he'd heard before that.

"Danny, who would still want what?" the Jack asked, confused.

Daniel looked up at the two way mirror. "Like the General said, the NID will make this into a weapon, but even with a cure they'd still want to use this. When they find out they could turn their spies into human _tasers_ who can gain basic intel by just stepping into the same building, the NID will be all over it."

Dr. Fraiser looked at him. "The General didn't say anything."

Daniel was confused.

_Is Daniel just having auditory hallucinations caused by the parasite?_ Dr Fraiser thought.

"I hope not," Daniel said, looking at Janet.

Janet looked at Daniel in shock, and Jack, Sam, and Teal'c just seemed confused.

The general cleared his throat a little. "Just before you spoke, Doctor Jackson, Iwas _thinking _about the NID."

"And I was just thinking that you..."

"...That I might be hallucinating because of the parasite?" Daniel suggested.

"So it _is_ some sort of telepathy," Sam said excitedly. "But that's not actually possible."

Jack grabbed the microphone. "I'm thinking of a number between one and five billion."

"It's twelve," Daniel answered right away, just as shocked as the other people.

"Well," Jack said with a sigh, "That was an easy one... What about...?"

"Blueberry?" Daniel said questioningly with a nervous laugh.

Everyone looked at O'Neill.

"Blueberry, sir?" Sam asked him.

"The the name of your grandmother's cat who died when you were 17 years old," Daniel answered.

"Is that not meant to be the name of a small, commercially-grown fruit, O'Neill?" Teal'c asked after having remained silent for so long.

Daniel smiled genuinely amused by the story he was picking up on from Jack. "They got it when Jack was five. They weren't sure of the right name so they said he could name it anything he wanted. His grandmother was making blueberry muffins that afternoon. Jack ended up dropping a bowl of berries on the all-white cat," Daniel gave a weak laugh. "With all those blue spots, he said she should be named _Blueberry_ \- Blue for short."

Everyone in the room was even more surprised. Not only could Daniel pick up simple names and numbers from someone, but also complete memories.

The nurse, Cindy, was still in the room. Daniel turned to her. "There was a fire last week at your parent's fishing cabin on the Oregon Coast - near Newport. The house was a total loss, but you keep thinking about how it looked when you were growing up."

Cindy looked very nervous, looking first a Janet, then up at the glass room where the others were watching. "T-That's true. They filed the insurance claim this morning and I've b-been thinking about it all day."

"Now I have no choice but to report this condition directly to the Pentagon," General Hammond said finally.

Despite their usual acceptance of military protocol, everyone present had some sort of argument. "But, Sir, if only you could..." Sam began; "With a little more time I may be able to..." Dr. Fraiser started; "Maybourne will take over this place and..." Jack argued; "General Hammond, I believe there may be another way to..." Teal'c said.

"Everyone quiet," Hammond said calmly, holding up his hand.

They were silent.

"I'll wait another hour, but no longer," Hammond agreed. He focused on Daniel. "And you're sure this can only be contracted by a _bite_?"

"As far as I can tell, the parasite _has_ to enter the blood stream," Dr. Fraiser answered. "There are concentrations on his lips and teeth, so it seems likely that it will _only_ be spread by the saliva during a bite or his blood mixing directly with another person's blood. Samples from under his fingernails show virtually no traces of the parasite."

"That's what the guard told me," Daniel agreed. Daniel pushed himself more upright in the bed, getting a little excited. "I think he was trying to help us get out. The things he was telling me... it's like he _knew_ I'd get away from the cell."

"What do you mean?" Sam asked over the intercom.

"He knew I'd be able to do something _interesting_ \- that was the exact word he used. He didn't know how I'd make it work, but somehow I got that lock open with electricity."

"Yeah, so how _did_ that happen?" Jack asked.

Daniel laughed a little. "I don't really know. I just put my hand on the lock..." he said, thinking hard as he held one hand out. "...And started thinking that I wanted to be able to do something to..."

Just then, as though someone had pulled the bed out from under him, Daniel started to fall like a rock, through the bed and the floor until he wasn't in the room. The needles attached to the two tubes in his arm let out a metallic sound as the ends fell limp against their stands.

"Daniel!?" Janet shouted in shock.

Everyone in the observation area was just as startled.

Daniel dropped through the ceiling and landed hard on one shoulder in the corridor one floor below the room he'd been in. He let out a groan as rolled onto his back to look at the apparently undamaged ceiling. He could have sworn he had just fallen through the ice on a frozen pond; for a few seconds his skin had been tingling, it got very cold, then he couldn't breathe, and finally his shoulder hit the concrete and everything seemed normal again. "And it just keeps getting weirder," he commented aloud to himself.

The two airman assigned to guard the corridor approached him quickly with their hands resting on their weapons, startled by the archaeologist's sudden appearance. They'd heard rumors about Dr. Jackson being brought back to isolation after their last mission, but all specific details of the mission had been classified.

"Dr. Jackson?" airman Wallace asked. "What are you doing down here?"

"More importantly, _how_ did you get here?" airman Coe asked immediately, glancing up at the ceiling, then towards the cement walls. "I was at the elevator and he was by the only staircase."

He slowly sat up. He was sore, tired, and a little dizzy again, but he didn't want any trouble. "Well, however I got here you should probably just walk with me up the staircase."

"This is General Hammond," the radios on the vests of the airman and the overhead intercom called in unison. "Dr. Daniel Jackson has disappeared from Medical Isolation Room #3. If anyone sees him, approach him with extreme caution and notify me immediately."

The two airmen took a step back from the doctor and unholstered their guns, aiming their weapons at him.

Daniel held up his hands a little to show he was being genuine about wanting to return..

Coe lowered his weapon and spoke into his walkie-talkie. "General? This is Sergeant Coe on level 22 just outside the Isolation Quarters. We have Doctor Jackson."

"Is he willing to return to the medical level?" General Hammond asked over his radio.

"Yes, Sir, he is," Coe answered simply.

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Daniel walked through the door into the isolation room, sprayed immediately by the disinfectant chemicals. "Isn't that a little redundant?" he complained as the chemicals stung his skin. He sped through the chemicals and went deeper into the small room.

"We'll be deactivating the spray in a little while," Dr. Fraiser assured. She was no longer wearing the hazmat suit, "Now, do you want to tell me what just happened?"

"Everyone keeps asking _me_ what's happening. Just to make it clear, I'm as in the dark about it as the rest of you," Daniel snapped, walking over to the mirror to get a good look at his reflection.

"In that case, I'll just get some blood samples and leave the conversation for the next check-up," Dr. Fraiser snapped back as she made some notes on her clipboard.

"Hi, Jack," he said to the mirror. "Sam went to the mess with Teal'c, right? You may as well join them. I think I'm going to be in here for a while and you haven't had anything to eat since yesterday." Daniel's eyes shifted to the reflection of Dr. Fraiser, and then he turned around to talk to face her. "I'm sorry, Janet. I have a headache, but maybe I'm just under a little too much stress," he added, gesturing at the mirror.

Jack got from his seat. "If you say so," he said into the microphone, "but we'll be back here as soon as we can to keep you company."

"Thanks," Daniel called back to the mirror.

Dr. Fraiser glanced up from her clipboard, but kept writing. "Your irritability is understandable."

Daniel looked back at his reflection. "I look like hell," he said softly, examining his bloodshot eyes and then his jagged teeth.

"You're still anemic and dehydrated, so if you sit back on the bed I'll have Cindy hook up the IVs again," Dr. Fraiser said a little more cheerfully.

Daniel walked back over to the bed and sat down, leaning against the slightly reclined back-piece.

She laid her clipboard on a tray and picked up the blood pressure cuff. "Aside from the headache, how are you feeling?"

"Like I'm going crazy," he admitted, raising his eyebrows and staring up at the ceiling.

"All of this _is _a little stranger than usual," Dr. Fraiser put on the blood pressure cuff and began her measurements.

Daniel looked at her, realizing something. "I can hear your heart beating."

Dr. Fraiser looked at him, still taking her measurement. "Really?" she asked with a skeptical tone.

Daniel put his free hand on the tray beside his bed, and used the sharp tip of his index finger to count out her heartbeats. The pace was steady, but then his finger tapped a little more quickly as Janet's heart sped up.

"Considering the nature of this parasite, and the legends on our own planet, I shouldn't be so surprised."

He closed his eyes, mesmerized by the sound as he kept time using his fingernail. "But you are… Those movies always made you a little nervous even though you knew they weren't real…"

She unvelcroed the cuff from his arm, still watching Daniel carefully.

The loud noise snapped him out of his trance, and his eyes popped open. "Sorry about that," he said nervously, putting his hand back onto the bed. "I think I could hear it when I was talking to everyone before, but with all the machines I didn't really notice."

Cindy came through the doors carrying a saline bag and a new package of whole blood. She went to the IV stand and began reattaching the equipment. When she touched his arm to insert the needle, he jumped a little. "This will only hurt for a moment," she assured, her hand resting reassuringly on his forearm.

For a split second he knew exactly what he was supposed to do: grab her by that gentle hand and bite down, not letting go until she was on the floor and her heart stopped making any sound. He looked away from her quickly, his own heart beating frantically. He felt a little electric charge run up his arm, almost like he had just pinched a nerve, and he heard a small _crack_.

Cindy pulled away with a small cry.

Daniel and Dr Fraiser both looked at her.

"Cindy?" Dr. Fraiser asked.

"J-Just static," she admitted, looking at Daniel with a mix of confusion and surprise.

"I guess that might have been me," Daniel admitted. "Are you ok?"

She nodded a little. "Fine." She reached out and grabbed the dangling needle again. "I just need to put in the IV."

He looked away again and felt the prick in his arm.

She walked away.

Dr Fraiser had been watching him. "Did the guard mention any behavioral changes that might happen with the parasite in your system?"

"Breck," he said cryptically.

"Excuse me?"

"The guard was named Breck."

"All right," Dr. Fraiser said slowly. "Did _Breck_ tell you anything?"

Daniel shook his head. He saw the needle running into his arm, and somehow felt better already.

"Well, the initial blood-work showed significantly low levels of Serotonin, which is very likely to be effecting your mood. You may be a little irritable, or more impulsive."

Daniel gave a short laugh. "So I am going crazy, but the part about a planet filled with blood drinking vampire is perfectly logical."

Dr. Fraiser shook her head. "It's _probably_ nothing to worry about so long as you have been given a transfusion." She picked up her clipboard. "It looks like your Serotonin levels are almost back in the normal range, but since you're still dehydrated I'm hoping they'll get a little higher with this next unit," Dr. Fraiser added. "As we gave you the first transfusion, we realized the parasites secrete several opiates that might..."

"...Be highly addictive," Daniel finished for her. "And I think you're right."

Cindy stopped beside him again to adjust some cords.

Dr. Fraiser nodded a little, turning around to check the readings being put out by the monitors.

His heart was beating more quickly again, and he felt that same urge. How simple it would be for him to just reach out...

Cindy walked away again.

Daniel sighed with so much relief that it felt as if an enemy Jaffa had just aimed his weapon at him then walk away without firing.

"Daniel, how are you feeling now? This last reading doesn't look like the others," Dr Fraiser mentioned.

Cindy picked up a folder from the counter and left the room.

"I know we're on a time crunch, but can I have a few minutes by myself?" Daniel requested. Even being in the same room as Janet was making him feel a little uncomfortable. "If I really did electrocute Cindy when she touched me, I think I need to figure out _how_ I did that so I don't do something worse."

"I'll be here to help you," Janet assured with a warm smile. "I know that you and Teal'c have meditated together in the past, but I have a few techniques that might help you focus."

He nodded a little. "It's always just _happened_. When I was in that cell I just had my hand against the lock when I felt a little shock."

"Sit up and swing your legs over the bed," she said softly, wheeling a chair away from the counter and to Daniel's bedside. She sat. "The technique is called _grounding_. It's supposed to help you get out of your own head. If your thoughts wander or become erratic, grounding can help you focus on your tangible surroundings."

He nodded a little and sat up.

"Sit up straight, take a deep breath and try to relax."

He exhaled, rolling his shoulders before settling into a comfortable position.

"What were you thinking about in the cell?" she asked.

"Just about getting out."

"Anything else? What about how you were feeling?"

He laughed a little. "I felt so weak that I was going to fall on the floor and never get up again. I was scared..." Daniel thought another moment, licking his lips to consider a more specific answer. "I knew I _had_ to get out of there. I was terrified about what would happen to the others if I didn't do something to make it happen."

"So would you say that you were focused on what you wanted; your desire to save the lives of your friends?"

He nodded slightly.

"Put one of your hands on the bed next to you, and close our eyes."

He did as he was told.

"Now I want you to imagine that the spot you put your had is a little damp... a thin layer of the wet substance is touching your palm." She spoke very slowly and calmly. "Your hand begins into sink into the mattress. You can feel that dampness oozing around your fingers. It wasn't just water; it was glue. Your hand is resting on the mattress again, and you can feel the dampness drying. As it dries it feels like you're becoming more attached to the mattress, like nothing is able to pull your hand away."

He nodded a little again.

"Hold out your other hand."

He held out his right hand in front of him.

She placed the pen from her clipboard gently into his outstretched hand. "I want you to remember what you were feeling when you knew you had to get away. Concentrate on letting the pen fall onto the floor. You don't want it in your hand any more, but instead of letting it go, it falls right though your hand, like your hand isn't there any more."

He was concentrating on the task, but nothing seemed to be happening.

"The only part of you that the pen needs to pass through is your hand. The rest of you is connected to the bed. Only your hand can let it fall."

Daniel suddenly realized he must have been holding back because he didn't want to fall through the floor again. His hand started to tingle and he heard the pen hit the cement floor.

"Very good," she said, trying to stay calm so as to keep Daniel as relaxed as possible. "Let's try that again."

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Jack, Teal'c and Carter filed into the observation area of the isolation room. Cindy was sitting at the desk but when they arrived she stood, smiled sympathetically, and left. They sat down behind the desk, looking into Daniel's room.

Daniel was standing beside the bed, one hand on the mattress and the other reaching out towards the stand beside the bed. The bags of blood and saline were dangling against the metal stand again, nearly empty. His eyes were open now, listening to the doctor as he focused on her instructions.

"You don't have anything to worry about. Just remember that you are still connected to that bed."

He nodded a little and brought his arm down, passing it cleanly through the metal table as if it weren't even there.

Everyone in the control room was surprised. Even Teal'c was momentarily stunned.

Daniel's eyes shifted to the mirror, the relaxed feeling fading as he became aware of his surroundings again. "Everyone have a nice lunch?"

"You're making progress, I see," Jack continued.

"Yes, Daniel is doing very well," Dr Fraiser answered. "He was concerned about injuring someone with his new abilities, so I was walking him through a grounding exercise that seems to be helping him focus."

"Can he destabilize the molecules of anything he comes in contact with? Or is it just his own body?" Sam asked excitedly through the microphone. "And, well, apparently his own clothing."

Daniel and Dr. Fraiser both smiled at her aside.

"It's only been forty minutes," Dr. Fraiser excused with a small laugh.

"I guess I could try," Daniel said, looking at the mirror and then back to Janet.

"Would you like me to start off with the meditation?"

Daniel shook his head a little. "I'll need to try it without your help at some point." He picked up one of the pens from the floor. "Besides, I'll just be on level 22 if I disappear."

Dr. Fraiser nodded.

"Maybe level 23," Daniel added as he placed the tip of the pen on the metal stand, holding the top. It almost looked as if he planned on balancing it by the tip, and then he took a deep breath, walking himself through his own form of focusing exercise.

The others watched with bated breath.

He exhaled slowly, pushing the pen slowly downward. It slid through the metal like a hot knife through butter. He let go when it was halfway through, and the pen continued to drop, cladding on the floor without damaging the pen or the metal tray. Daniel was dizzy. He swayed a little before finding his balance.

"That's extraordinary," Sam said. "I'd love to take you down to the lab and..."

"Carter," Jack said scoldingly in a very serious voice as he watched Daniel. "Danny, are you alright?"

Daniel caught himself on the bed, sitting down. "I think I might need another transfusion," he admitted weakly. "And I'd like to try having a drink of water."

"Oh, of course," Dr Fraiser said hurriedly. She picked up a fresh bottle of water from the countertop beside her and passed the drink to him. "I should have known that you would need another unit after exerting yourself like that. I'll be right back." She rushed out the metal doors to get another package.

Daniel laughed nervously. "Now I just need to figure out how to keep from electrocuting the people I touch."

"I would be willing to assist you with further meditation," Teal'c offered.

"I was actually wondering if you could let me go back to the planet," Daniel said. He could already hear their hearts beat a little more quickly.

"After everything you did to get off that planet, why on Earth do you want to go back?" Sam asked with an irritated voice.

"Well, to start with they know what's happening to me..." He opened the bottle of water and drank a few sips.

"No," Jack said, still serious. "To start with they wanted you to kill someone."

Daniel nodded a little, picking up stray thoughts from all his friends as to why it's such a bad idea from him to go back. "Forget I mentioned it." He drink more of the water.

Dr. Fraiser came in with another unit of blood. She attached the bag to the IV stand, and started switching the cord.

"Thanks." He drank the rest of the water quickly, still hearing bits and pieces of his friends' thoughts about his request to return.

"I'm sorry we keep having to prick your arm," Dr. Fraiser said.

"It's ok," Daniel said, setting the bottle on the tray beside him.

She touched his arm, looking for a healthy vein on his pale skin.

Just like the other times, the touch to his skin and how close to him she was made his heart beat more quickly.

Her eyes darted to the monitor, and then looked to Daniel. His eyes seemed almost glazed over, and he suddenly looked even paler than he was a few seconds ago. "What's going on?" she asked suspiciously, still touching his arm.

"Can you please just start the transfusion," he said, his voice shaking a little. He leaned over and dropped the bottle on the metal tray next to him.

"Not until you tell me what's wrong," she said.

Daniel looked at her. He could hear her heart beating steadily, but it almost seemed louder than it was before. "Janet."

"Not until you tell me," she repeated stubbornly.

He crawled off the bed quickly, taking a few steps away from her. "I think you should leave. I'll start the IV myself."

She put her hand on her hips. "I'm staying right here."

Daniel licked his lips, still looking at her. "I don't feel very good, and I'm not sure if you're safe around me." His hands were clenched in fists.

"How so?" she pressed.

Daniel gave another nervous laugh. "How do you think?" He was pacing a little. If he didn't burn off the nervous energy somehow he knew he'd end up using it in a way he'd regret. The sounds in the control room were distracting, too. Jack and Sam were both a little excited, their hearts beating like they were watching an action movie. Even Teal's heart was thumping a few beats faster than it had been a minute ago.

Dr. Fraiser nodded a little. "Alright. _I'll_ start the IV and then leave you alone. I need to give the General an update anyway."

Daniel licked his lips and nodded a little, walking slowly back to the Doctor.

Janet held his arm again for just a moment, and inserted the needle. She stood there a second, looking to Daniel for some sort of reaction.

"You still need to go," he said, not looking at her this time. He was watching the blood go quickly through the tub and head towards his arm.

"If you say so," she said pleasantly. _The parasite must be effecting his mind_.

"You're probably right," he admitted. "And that's why you need to go."

She nodded a little, and headed for the door.

Daniel leaned back in the bed, beginning to calm down as he was again feeling the effects of the parasites being fed.

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"Yes, Sir, I think he may be dangerous," Dr. Fraiser admitted.

"Seriously?" Jack wrinkled his nose. "This is still _Daniel_ we're talking about."

Jack, Sam, Teal'c and General Hammond had been called into the briefing room for an update on Daniel's status.

"Yes. I believe it _is_ still Daniel. That's exactly why he asked me to leave," Dr. Fraiser continued. "If he were being completely compromised by this infection, he would have likely given into whatever he was keeping himself from doing."

"So he's dangerous, but not dangerous?" Jack asked playfully.

Dr. Fraiser rolled her eyes a little. "He has the ability to be dangerous."

"We can't be jumping to conclusions then," Sam said, siding with O'Neill's wishful thinking. "If you push someone enough, anyone can be dangerous."

Dr. Fraiser gave a hard sigh. "You've asked for my assessment, and I've given it. Yes, he is still Daniel, but the parasite is giving his body new objectives. It used to be for food and water, but now it seems to be for blood."

The loud speakers kicked on and the sirens began to sound. Technician Walter Harriman's voice called, "Security team to Operations! Dr Jackson is attempting to..." His announcement was cut off.

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Walter was standing by what was left of the phone he used to make the emergency announcements. Dr. Jackson had ripped it from the wall, right out of his hands.

Daniel was standing at the dialing keyboard, typing quickly. Sam was just a floor above him and it didn't take much effort to find out how to activate the gate and reprogram the computer so they couldn't stop him from leaving.

The wormhole opened with an explosion of blue particles, sinking back to a flat surface.

Daniel took a deep breath and made a running jumped over the keyboard, through the blast window. The glass was left without a scratch as he passed through it and started to fall towards the floor of the gate room. He landed awkwardly at the foot of the ramp but the impact wasn't as painful as he'd expected.

The guards were already filling into the Gate Room.

Before the first guard could say anything, Daniel was holding one of them against him and backing onto the ramp.

"Daniel?" Jack called running into the room as he raised his pistol towards his friend. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"

Teal'c came into the room, too, raising his Zat gun at Daniel.

"I have to go back to that planet," Daniel said simply, still holding the airman tightly. "I don't want to hurt anyone, but unless I go back there and find out exactly what's happening to me, my condition could end up hurting a lot of people."

"If you return to that planet you will undoubtedly be imprisoned once again, and subsequently expected to murder a human to prove yourself worthy of living as you are," Teal'c commented.

Jack looked around at the room full of guns pointed at Daniel. "Everyone lower your weapons," he called to the group, looking back at Daniel. Only he and Teal'c were still aiming at Daniel.

"You know I can't stay here," Daniel said more desperately, shifting his hold on the airman. "The NID will haul me off to one of their secret hideouts for testing, or maybe they'll ship me someplace worse. They'll never even _try_ to cure me. They'll run tests and end up making this into a weapon. The urges I've been having since I got back…" His voice trailed off for just a second. "I can't live like this much longer."

"For now you gotta stay _here_," Jack said, aiming his gun at Daniel's shoulder. "At least until Hammond gives us the OK to go back to that place _with_ you." He pulled the trigger.

Daniel heard the sound and closed his eyes. The bullet harmlessly passed through him and hit the edge of the Stargate, deflecting into a wall. Daniel opened his eyes, looking furious. "Are you crazy, Jack!" he demanded. "With all those things in my blood you could have splattered them all over this room!"

Jack shrugged.

Daniel gave a nervous laugh suddenly and continued, "I just fell through 5 floors and walked through a half dozen locked doors to get down here, so you really thought a _bullet_ was going to change my mind?"

Jack nodded towards Teal'c.

"I apologize," Teal'c said as he fired the Zat gun at Daniel.

The electricity hit Daniel on the arm, spread through his limbs and into his hostage. Daniel let out a small sound of shock, as if he'd been splashed with cold water, but recovered just as quickly. The soldier he was holding was now unconscious, but Daniel's strength allowed him to hold her in the same position. This time Daniel just looked annoyed. "Electrical weapon on a person who has electricity coming from their hands?"

"Point taken," Jack said casually, he and Teal'c both lowering their weapons.

"Face it: you can't stop me from going back to that world."

"You know I had to try," Jack said with a sneer.

"That's the point," Daniel continued more sadly. "If something happens and I try to hurt anyone, no one here can stop me."

The blast doors to the control room opened. General Hammond, Sam, and Dr Fraiser all arrived in the control booth slightly above the gate room, looking through the glass to see Daniel standing on the ramp with the unconscious airman in his grasp.

"What are you doing, Doctor?" Hammond asked over the speaker.

"If I don't head back to PX5-332 to get some answers, I'll be Colonel Maybourne's lab rat for the next hundred or so years," Daniel called. "And you can bet they'll wanna see what kind of damage I can do to a person with these," he added, gesturing his clawed hand towards his pointed teeth. "If the wrong kind of person gets infected with this parasite, I assure you there will be a pandemic."

"What do you mean _wrong kind of person_?" Hammond asked him, remaining calm. If Dr. Jackson hurt that soldier there would be no more conversations..

Daniel laughed a little. "Janet already told you the way this parasite works."

Hammond was silent, waiting for him to continue.

"The parasites make people _want_ blood," Daniel clarified as much for himself as for the others. "And once they get it, it feels better than anything you've ever felt before. These things make me want to get it with a bite, not just a needle in the arm." He licked his lips. "It's addictive. I've had a few close calls today."

"Let the airman go and I'll order a probe to go through as a relay between us and the people on that planet," Hammond offered calmly

Daniel's eyes focused on his hostage, almost forgetting where he was again as he stared at the helpless woman. Even unconscious he could still hear whispers of his hostage's life, where her family lived, and even the dog she had at home. He could feel every beat of her heart right down to his bones. "I've only ever fired my weapon a handful of times during all the missions I've been on, but right now it would feel so easy to…"

"Our first concern is your safety." Hammond interrupted, cutting off Daniel's thought. "We need to assure that you won't be harmed if you were to return to the planet."

The whispers from the hostage became louder as she stirred, but she was not yet awake. He looked back to Hammond, lowering the hostage a little as he came back to his senses. "I can't live this way."

"According to our calculations, the second sun won't be below the horizon on that part of the planet for at least another 2 minutes," Sam said into the microphone. "If you go through the gate right now, the sunlight will kill you."

Daniel shook his head a little, trying to focus on something other than the hostage. "Then it looks like this wormhole will just need to stay open for another 2 minutes," Daniel said. He looked up at the General. "Please give me _permission_ to return to the planet."

Everyone was at a standstill for a moment.

"You know that I can't negotiate with you. You should also know we already planned to consult the inhabitants of the planet about your condition. Just let the airman go and I will let you go back to the infirmary," Hammond said finally.

Daniel tilted his head a little as though he were listening for a small sound that was far away. His eyes shot back to the General. "You haven't told anyone, but Maybourne's men will be here in less than 5 hours to take me with them. You reported to the President before the last update with Fraiser and he wants the NID to research my condition."

Everyone was silent again, surprised.

Hammond sighed. "That's right," he admitted calmly.

"We haven't even been back on this planet for a day," Sam began. "It's hard to believe this falls into his jurisdiction. We should be granted more time to solve this medical situation. With all due respect, General, you can't just turn Daniel over to them."

"He doesn't want to give the NID anything," Daniel assured. "But once they set foot on this base he won't have a choice."

"Major Carter, disengage the wormhole," the general ordered.

Sam typed a few things on the keyboard. "He's locked me out but I think I can close the iris." She typed a few more keys and the iris behind Daniel closed.

"You're still not going to let me go," Daniel announced in a disappointed voice.

"The second sun should be below the horizon on PX5-332, Sir," Sam reported to the general.

"Daniel," Hammond said. "Let the airman go."

Daniel strained again to hear what the general was thinking. He smiled a little and carefully lowered the airman to the floor. "She'll be fine." Daniel stood again with his hands up slightly to show that he wasn't planning on doing anything else to the soldier at his feet. "I'd rather die than help Maybourne's people make a weapon out of what's in my blood."

"Daniel, we're not going to let you die," Jack said casually, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "Which, of course, would mean we're not going to let Maybourne take you."

Daniel backed towards the gate.

_General Hammond is already trying to figure out how to keep me on the base_, Jack heard Daniel's voice in his ear, even though Daniel hadn't said anything. _You can hear me, right? Toss me the transmitter. When I have my answers I'll come back. _Jack looked a little confused. Was he the one hallucinating now?

Daniel nodded a little, holding out his hand as he backed in front of the iris.

_Just tell them I made you do it_, Daniel's voice called in his ear again. _It might get me in trouble later on, but for now they don't know the difference._ Jack grabbed the remote transmitter from the pocket of his vest and tossed it to his friend.

_If you don't dial back in 2 hours with a report, we're coming for you_, Daniel heard Jack think. _Since people are executed for _not _to killing someone_, Jack continued, _you can bet we're not leaving you in that cell a minute longer than we need to_.

Jack pulled the radio from his belt and tossed it to Daniel.

_Good luck_ Sam thought, hoping that Daniel had picked that up.

Daniel turned quickly and jumped into the iris, passing through it and successfully being sucked into the wormhole's gravitational pull.

The gate shut down.

Hammond turned to Fraiser. "Doctor, use the samples you collected from Dr. Jackson to keep trying to find something that will kill this parasite without harming him."

The doctor nodded and left.

"Stand down," Hammond announced to the base.

The emergency lights stopped flashing.

"I want SG-1 to prepare for a mission to recover Dr. Jackson in…" Hammond paused before giving a timeframe, looking at the team for suggestions.

"…2 hours," Jack finished.

Hammond nodded. "Be ready to leave at 1600 hours."

000000000000000000000

Daniel stepped out of the gate, landing on the stone platform of the park's monument.

Several citizens had gathered around the gate. When they'd emerged from their homes at sunset, a few of them had seen the blue lights coming from the park.

Daniel looked around at the faces of the people gathered at the base of the stairs. A few of the _citizens_ looked as human as anyone at the SGC, while a handful of others looked even more gnarled with longer claws, bald heads, strangely colored eyes, and a more skeletal body structure. Most of the onlookers, however, looked like a general balance between monster and human, just as the woman who bit him, that guard from the town, and his own condition seemed to resemble.

The gate closed behind him and he looked around.

"Hello, Daniel," a man's voice called from behind the gate.

Daniel looked through the empty ring and spotted the red-haired guard, Breck, who had relayed some of the details of the planet to him. He was dressed much more casually than he had been, so he hoped that meant the jailer wasn't there on official business.

"You don't need to run," Breck called, seeing how startled Daniel was.

The citizens who had gathered were apparently not interested anymore and began to leave.

"I wouldn't stand a chance," Daniel smiled a little, nervously. "I just want to know more about your world and what's happened to me. I'll go back home after that, I promise."

"For your own sake I hope you do," Breck said simply with a smile, stopping below the playform where Daniel stoof.. "Are your hungry?"

He'd used a lot of energy to escape from the base. "As long as it doesn't mean hurting anyone." Daniel had was feeling weak, but at the same time more relaxed than he had in days. There were no regular people near him for the first time since this all started.

Breck nodded. "My feelings exactly." He gestured towards one of the paths through the park.

Daniel walked off the platform and he and Breck began down pathway.

"Why am I not being arrested?" Daniel asked, still not picking up any stray thoughts from Breck. _Maybe I'm weaker right now than I thought I was._

"I convinced the Thane that the way you escaped during the day was proof enough of your willingness to survive at all costs."

"Thane?" Daniel asked. "As I know the word it's from an area of my planet's Early Medieval Anglo-Saxon culture- it just means _official_ or _attendant_. A famous playwright named Shakespeare used the word to describe someone in line for the crown," he rambled before realizing he may also not know what was meant by _playwright _or _the crown_. He took a breath to continue but Breck stopped him.

"I understand," Breck said. "A play is a form of artistic expression, and a crown belongs to a _king_."

Daniel was a little surprised.

"You won't be able to hear my thoughts unless I allow it. Your thoughts are like an open book," Breck pointed out. "But it does take me more time to understand. You have so many languages, so much history," he gestured at his own head, "from so many unique places."

Daniel sighed a little. "I've never needed to hide what I was thinking. No one on my planet can actually read anyone's mind. I study languages so I don't always think in just one at a time."

Breck nodded. "The Thane is the top official of our region," Breck clarified, "what you might call a Prime Minister or President, but he wasn't elected democratically. At first you might have called it a democratic election, but he has held the position since the beginning. Thane Donovan was part of the first group of people on our planet to be transformed."

"How long ago was that?" Daniel asked.

Breck was quiet for a few seconds, gathering some information from Daniel's mind. "To use your measure of time… 750 years have passed, give or take," Breck finally said. "Days are so much longer here and our revolution around the sun takes longer as well. By our measurement of time it has been 577 years."

"And he's still alive?" Daniel asked in horrified shock. Immortality seemed to be a verified side effect.

"None of us are really immortal," Breck answered philosophically, partly acknowledging Daniel's stray thought. "All of us can be killed. We pass as victims of murder, misfortune, and self-inflicted injury. Much like any world. We are only invulnerable to age and physical illness."

"How long have you been alive?" Daniel asked, unsure if he was ready to hear the answer.

"Converting it to numbers you fully understand, I was infected when I was about 30 years old and I have been alive for a total of 190 years."

By now Breck was leading them out of the park and towards another residential area. This neighborhood had homes with larger yards and houses separated by strips of glass.

"I should start at the beginning. Only one man and one women came through the gate. It spread quickly. Many people died. Healthy and afflicted died by the thousands every day for weeks, then by the hundreds, and finally after a year we found a sort of balance."

"How many healthy and infected are on the planet now?" Daniel asked.

"We didn't count our people often before the parasite, but some historians guess we numbered close to 15 million. After that first year is when everyone started to live again. The healthy migrated to the other continent and were mostly safew from fear of infection. Those who were infected killed themselves or were killed before they could transform, but most importantly an artificial blood substitute was created. We had over 100,000 infected and 10 million healthy."

"A third of the population was killed in a year?" Daniel asked for clarification.

Breck nodded. "Nearly every year after that we have tracked population changes. It took a few more decades, but, because of people like Donovan, the infected were no longer killed immediately. Instead they were transported to our continent as quickly as possible. That is when our ranking systems became law. Our last global count recorded roughly 500,000 infected living on this continent and 3 billion healthy inhabitants on the northern continent."

"How much bigger is the Northern continent?" Daniel asked.

Breck was silent for a few paces. "Europe, Asia, and North America together as compared to Australia. Fittingly, we are Australia. Our climate is even similar to your Australia, but we have very little wildlife."

Daniel couldn't help but smile. He had been rambling to Jack about Australia when they were in the cell.

"In the _very _beginning, before this all started, we had a God…" Breck stopped moving, his eyes wide as he learned everything about the Gao'uld and other false gods. "A God you have _met_. His name was Anubis."

"Anubis was here?" Daniel asked in shock.

Breck started walking again. "He hasn't set foot on this world since the parasite started. Our _God_ abandoned us and no one has seen the Stargate operate since. None of us remembered how it operated until you and your friends came through it."

"Do you know who sent the first ones here? Why did someone send this plague?"

"No one knows for sure," Breck admitted. "We have only one other name from that time: Nirrti."

Daniel spoke excitedly. "Nirrti must have engineered the parasite for Ba'al to use against Anubis's empire. Ba'al and Anubis have been at war several times over the last millennia and Nirrti has destroyed whole worlds with her experiments. With all the hours of sunlight I can see why she designed it to work like this. If the Stargate had been on the mainland, there probably wouldn't be a single human left and all he infected people would have starved. Her recent experiments have been trying to make better hosts for herself. Telepathy, telekinesis…"

Breck held up his hand and tapped a finger against his own head. "I know because you know. This weapon might have become the inspiration for her life's work. She would have been quite young when this _plague_ was created and the abilities we manifest are exactly the type of skills she hopes to have for herself."

They continued walking.

"Those of our kind who survived the first 50 years negotiated for our rights. Since our God never returned we were given the island with the Stargate in case more of the infected came through."

"And that's why human criminals are sent here? So you can have a source of blood?" Daniel asked, remembering the blur of images and facts Breck had given him the day before.

"As long as we stay on this continent, the humans on the other 10 regions of the main continent leave us alone. Yes, our planet is at least twice the size of yours but we have only two continents. There are 8 small regions to this continent. Every night a boat from a different mainland continent comes to our neighboring region and the criminals are dispersed to the regions that are running low on slaves. It's an old tradition. It started before the blood substitutes were easily available. Two of our regions refuse to have any human contact whatsoever, even refusing to use slaves to help run their commerce during the day. Those regions are mostly scientists."

"And the other 6 regions?" Daniel asked. "How were their leaders chosen?"

Breck sighed. "Donovan, Bonnie, and Reed were all the first who negotiated our freedoms. They rule the largest regions, and are very strict about the old laws. Criminal slaves can be treated in whatever way a Citizen wishes. They can even be killed if the Citizen wants natural blood. All of them have been in power from the beginning. Alison, Innes, and Brycen tend to be more lenient. They were chosen as leaders by their own citizens. Elections are held every ten years and allow their laws to change with the will of their people. For nearly 200 years -our years- the citizens who buy slaves in their regions are required to keep them alive. It's been negotiated with the human governments so that after 2 years the people guilty of lesser crimes are shipped back to their own continents and forgiven for their offense. Harsher crimes come with a minimum of 10 years of service. They are quarantined before returning, but eventually returned to their own people."

They turned down one of the other streets.

"All of the regions have similar ways of assessing people who have been infected. They catalogue the person's abilities to assure that they can serve their regions most effectively. The three old-style regions take it to another level, as you may have noticed. They fear overpopulation by vampires, so changing a person without prior permission is typically a capital crime for both the vampire and the person who has just been changed." Breck led them to the front door of one of the largest homes on the block. He put a hand on the black pad in the center of the door. After an electronic click, the door opened. "Welcome to my home," he said pleasantly.

Daniel walked into the building. "What is your role here? Why try to keep me alive if you live in one of the regions that are _strict_ about people being infected?"

Breck closed the door and directed him into a living room. The windows were closed, but there were various electronic devices emitted small amounts of light. He went to one of the windows and pressed a button. The coverings to the windows rose quietly and the light of two moons shone into the room. "Please have a seat," he said, leaving the room.

Daniel sat down on a loveseat-sized, fluffy couch made of leather as his eyes scanned the room.

Breck returned with two cups. He handed one to Daniel before sitting down in an armchair and taking a sip from his own. "It's synthetic."

Daniel drank a sip from the cup. It wasn't actually blood. It tasted like nothing he'd ever had before; a little strange, but not bad. It had a medicinal taste, but was not unlike like a cocktail. The effect of it seemed to be more intense than, but generally the same as, the blood he'd been transfused with at the SGC: he felt instantly stronger and more relaxed.

"I am a mix of what you might call a _mayor_ and a _sheriff_. One of my roles in the service of Thane Donovan is to assess the people who have been transformed. My abilities are why I was chosen for this task. I can see through illusions and sense what abilities a person is manifesting. Anyone on Thane Donovan's land who is going to be tested comes to this town and is evaluated by me."

"Did you know I could walk through walls and electrocute things when you put me in the cell?" Daniel asked bluntly.

Breck shook his head a little. "Not exactly… I could sense the electricity, but your transformation wasn't complete. In the years to come as you practice your skills they will continue to grow until you reach your full potential."

This frightened Daniel. His abilities were already destructive and he could only imagine what they might become with practice. With earlier news about the agelessness of his condition, he could have centuries to practice. "What do you sense now?

Breck knew why he was concerned and wanted to find the right way to assure his new friend. "You need to be open to whatever comes next."

Daniel laughed. "You're talking like a palm-reader." Daniel didn't bother explaining the reference. "Please just tell me something specific?"

"Ok." Breck thought another moment and sipped his drink. "Your ability to see the thoughts and memories of others… is all based on electricity. You pick up on the electric pathways made by a person's memories and by the thoughts that pass through their minds. With practice I know you will be able to share your specific memories with others, not just see theirs. My telepathic ability has a similar effect. I will warn you that all our abilities work like an oil lamp: as you use up the fuel you will need to replenish yourself. If you allow yourself to become too exhausted you might pose a threat to the people you are trying to help."

Daniel was surprised. As far as specificity was concerned, Breck had delivered.

"And passing through walls is a result of using electricity to disrupt solid matter at the atomic level," Breck continued. "The mater resumes its' original shape when you have finished, so I don't think it will be a destructive skill unless you use it with the intention to harm. Your friend, Sam, can explain more of this to you."

Daniel took another drink from his glass. He was already feeling infinitely stronger.

Breck continued to explain more things about the world. "There are many cities in this region, and I am in charge of keeping the peace in mine. The Thane ordered your capture and you were to be treated like any other criminals who tried to steal a slave from another Citizen. By the time you escaped I'd learned quite a bit about you and your friends," Breck said, occasionally drinking from the cup. "Namely about the Stargate and the other worlds you've seen."

Daniel took another small sip, unsure of what Breck might ask from him in return for the mercy Breck has snown him.

"I told the Thane that you were from another planet, and that your people had interfered because you have no laws like ours where you come from," Breck continued. "I assured him that if any of you ever returned, you'd eventually go back to your own planet." He took another sip. "I found out a lot about _you_ while you were in there. I told him there was no chance whatsoever of you infecting a person. You'd let yourself die before attacking someone."

Daniel nodded. "Thanks. I hope that's still true." He finished the rest of his drink. "So that's why you showed me information about your world and let us escape?"

Breck nodded a little. "I was curious about the final evolution of your abilities, as I am with everyone who has been changed. Did I show you the Level System we use?"

Daniel shook his head a little. "I'd like to know more."

"When we _rank and evaluate_ someone, they are first placed into one of three levels. The levels are very easy to decide, based entirely on physical appearance. Level 3 is a more concentrated form of the infection." He took a sip of his drink. "They typically have more obviously altered physical features. Unusual eye colors, more animal-like fingernails, and loss of hair are just a few of the features they might develop. Behaviorally, they need to consume more blood, so it is frequently harder for them to be near people." He set down his cup, and looked at Daniel again. "You're right, level threes are very much like the creature in the _Nosforotu_ film."

Daniel was a little surprised by Breck's reference. Breck must have been reading minds every day to know how to pull something so random from Daniel's mind.

"Level 1 infection means the person looks completely human at all times except for times they chose, or times when they require nourishment. In human form, their abilities can manifest weakly, but when they drink or chose to use the full strength of their abilities, their teeth and fingernails change almost immediately to accommodate their will. Many of the parasites in their system are dormant until activated so they don't require less blood than most level 2's."

"Wouldn't that be the best level?" Daniel asked quickly. "Being able to just _turn it off_ would make it so much easier to live with what you are."

Breck nodded a little. "Maybe it is... But because it is known to be easier for a Level 1 to remain in human form, when the parasite takes control they aren't accustomed to the sensations associated with our condition. They are oftentimes completely overwhelmed even if their needs are no greater than yours or mine. Unfortunately, I have been forced to execute many Level 1's due to their unlawful infection or murder of human slaves, regardless of if they had intended to harm any of them."

Daniel raised his eyebrows. "Does that mean we are Level 2?"

Breck nodded.

"So level 2's always look different from uninfected humans, but, because they learn to control their urges, they don't unwillingly harm people?" Daniel asked hopefully.

"Not exactly," Breck said. "I once arrested a Lever 2 citizen who refused to own slaves. He had been hiking in the ruins and become trapped after falling into a deep cavern connected to a series of caves. None of his abilities could aid his escape so it took him three days to find his way to the surface. By then he was almost too ill to keep walking. He waited for sunset and made his way through the plains. The first people he encountered was a citizen traveling with his slave. Before any words could be spoken, the starving Level 2 attacked the slave and killed him."

Daniel was stunned.

"He was genuinely regretful of his crime and wasn't executed. Instead he was imprisoned for several months and forced to reimburse the slave-owner for his losses."

Daniel nodded, a little more concerned about his Level 2 status than he was a moment ago.

"Level 1's and 3's are usually the ones who are executed after initial infection. Only those with truly impressive abilities, or natural skills, are given a high enough rank to be granted citizenship. Unfortunately, no one knows what Level someone will be when they are infected. The level of the citizen who infects them doesn't seem to have any bearing on the level they become, but Level 2 is the most common result." Breck shrugged a little. "I don't have the patience for science, but I've often considered challenging myself by learning all the biology behind our condition." He was looking hard at Daniel. "What I know now about Niirti and the false Gods might keep my attention in the laboratory."

"The Gao'uld have what's called a _genetic memory_: the Gao'old offspring know what their parents knew," Daniel explained. "Janet said this parasite looks a lot like a Gao'uld. Does anything like that happen with this parasite? Does it have thoughts of it's own? Can it communicate?"

Breck shook his head and shrugged. "It influences our actions, as you have experienced, but nothing like you described. As I have said, I don't know much of the science."

Daniel set the empty cup on the floor by his seat and leaned back, feeling very relaxed and content. Janet's explanation about the effects of the stimulants secreted by the parasite wasn't an understatement. He could see why some _Citizens _might choose to live in regions that still allowed them to consume natural blood.

"With your knowledge of languages and other worlds, I think even the humans of this planet would have employed you if you hadn't escaped," Breck commented off handedly. "Ironically, those with too high a rank are sometimes less welcome than a Level 3 slave who was accidentally changed: you might be too much of a threat to let you near the large populations."

"That's what my people think," Daniel admitted. "How can I control myself around them? Saying it's been hard is a gross understatement."

Breck nodded a little, considering the best advice. "I can tell. People like us, those who can see what others are thinking, have a slight advantage. When others begin to hear a person's heart, all they hear is the heart. They forget the heart is a person. Even in that trance _we _can still hear the person's mind. When you start to lose yourself in that _sound_, focus on the _person_. You are someone who naturally wants to help people, not harm them, so that should be enough."

"Thank you," Daniel said genuinely grateful.

"Unless you are starving or near death," Breck added distractedly as he glanced outside.

Before Daniel could ask for the definition of _starving_, Breck continued.

"I don't support of the way this region is being run, and I've felt this way for a very long time," Breck confessed abruptly. "One of the regions without a leader is on our lower border. Over the years I've helped a handful of lesser criminals and those who were accidentally infected to _immigrate _if they would have otherwise been put to death by our old laws. For example, that slave girl you and your friend removed from Bethany's home is alive and being cared-for by them."

"You mean you've smuggled them out?" Daniel asked, relieved to find someone on this brutal planet who may share his views about the sanctity of life.

He nodded. "I respect my Citizens and their right to keep slaves, but I think our people could become something more than they are." He voice became very passionate, and just a little sad. "In many ways our region is too stuck in the past. We should work with the humans to pool our technology and find a way to _reverse _this in people who don't want this life."

"That's what my people are trying to do," Daniel said excitedly. "At least some of them. Have your scientists made any progress?"

Breck shook his head. "Not much."

"Maybe we could work something out. Would Thane Donovan be willing to work with the people of my planet to cure this?"

"Donovan isn't going to be making decisions for us any longer."

Daniel looked at him, shocked. "Did I arrive in the middle of a coup?"

Breck laughed. "As a matter of fact, you did. The people in my position throughout our cities have met in secret several times. We're not sure how peacefully the transition will go. I knew who I could trust and sent them out of harm's way. Houses along this block are virtually empty. Donovan's was the worst of the three old regions. He was assassinated a few hours before sunset. As soon as it was confirmed I put on my daylight uniform and posted a notice asking those who want things to stay the same to move to the regions run by Reed and Bonnie. We hope for _this_ region to maintain constant relations with the human continents while continuing to research our affliction. Moreover, we'll no longer be accepting human slaves in this region as of the next sunrise. Using the resources we have, we'll manufacture better daytime commerce centers and underground passageways, and rely solely on a donated or synthetic food source. We'll have no reason for slaves."

"So you'll be a region with qualities of the isolationists and the moderates. That sounds like…" Daniel began to say, but he was interrupted by the sound of an explosion coming from the city.

"I guess it's starting," Breck said sadly with a long sigh as he stood. He looked back to Daniel. "I have something for you - books to answer more of your questions - but then I'm going to have to ask you to go back through the Stargate. You'll be no safer here than back at your home."

Daniel stood. He'd been given plenty of information about the planet, but not nearly enough about the parasite.

"I need you to wait here for a little while," Breck said hesitantly. "Depending on how things are progressing in town, I'm not sure how long I'll be away. The documents are in my office." Breck turned towards a cupboard in the corner of the room. "Broadcast on," he said in a more commanding voice.

The cupboard opened to reveal a curved sheet of opaque glass with moving landscapes projected three-dementedly between the curves in the glass.

"It's like _television_," Breck clarified before turning back to the cupboard. "World events," he called to the screen.

The channel flipped to a pale, red-headed woman talking about weather patterns.

"Just tell it a topic and it will find the right frequency," Breck continued.

There was another explosion.

"W-What if someone stops by?" Daniel asked nervously.

"I need to get my bag before the town goes up…" he said distantly. Breck looked concerned. "Use your abilities. I promise that your abilities are more powerful than nearly all of my citizens. Your rank would have been very high."

Daniel nodded a little.

"I'll be back as soon as I can." He left the house at the speed of a blur, following the path back towards town.

Daniel looked towards the broadcast, and sat back down where he had been, paying more attention to the flickering lights in the direction of the city than the light coming from the monitor.

000000000000000000000

Daniel glanced at his watch.

Breck had been gone for over an hour, and in that time there had been several more ground-shaking explosions. Through the window, in the distance, he could see flames raising from a house he'd passed on the way from the Stargate. Fearing he would be seen, Daniel had commanded the television to shut off not long after Breck left. He watched the city through the window from his dark room.

The front door opened suddenly.

Daniel stood quickly, hoping it was Break, but fearing it wasn't. He backed towards the window, waiting for the new arrival to round the corner. If it wasn't Breck, he was confident he could pass through the window for escape.

"Daniel?" Breck called.

Daniel exhaled, relieved.

Breck came into the room with a duffel bag and held it out to him. "This is a copy of the work my region has been doing concerning the parasite. I took some more books from a friend's house. Janet might be right about the connection to the Gao'uld. Even with what I've told you of our history, I've included books about our world's history prior to the outbreak. There are samples of the blood substitute and its formula. It's safe for you to drink, and just as effective on humans who need transfusions. Hopefully it will help your people as much as it has helped ours."

Daniel quickly pulled out one of the books to see what the language was. At a glance it looked like some sort of mix between Gaelic, Latin, and Gao'uld.

"You don't have time for that," Breck said hurriedly, looking at the window as he motioned for him to put the book back. He stared hard at Daniel.

Daniel his eyes were wide, and then he blinked a few times. In a matter of seconds Breck had relayed to him the alphabet and grammar of the language in the books, everything he'd need to quickly translate everything included in the bag.

Breck's expression softened. "Follow me."

Daniel stuffed the book into the bag and slung it over his shoulder as he followed Breck out of the house. They didn't even bother closing the door behind them. "Why didn't you tell me about your world like that, the way you did yesterday at the prison?"

"Telling you about our written language was easy, like relaying a math equation. Politics and history have opinions, wars, speculations, and egos… It's very draining to even attempt it non-verbally," Breck admitted. "If anything happens on the way, use your abilities to make it back to the Stargate."

"Daniel, come in," called Jack's voice thought the radio in Daniel's pocket.

Daniel grabbed onto radio as they walked. He pressed the button. "I'm here. I'm on my way back to the Stargate… Where are you?"

Jack, Sam, and Teal'c stood on the platform of the Stargate, all of their weapons ready to fire.

"We just went through the gate," Jack announced.

"Are you guys all right?" Daniel asked into the radio. He and Breck sped up their pace.

The once pristine park was now charred in several places and frozen in others. Most of the flowers and trees had been flattened, uprooted, burned, or frozen, and only a few lamplights remained upright. Some patches of ground looked like a mountain range of peaks and craters were the soil itself had been manipulated. The city was ablaze, so there was no lack of light.

"Post-Apocalyptic war zone aside, we're fine," Jack called happily into the radio. "What's going on here?"

"Breck and I will be there in a minute," Daniel assured. "I'll tell you all about it once we're back on Earth."

"_Breck_?" Jack asked.

Daniel and Breck were entering the first group of houses they'd passed on their way from the park.

"The jailer from yesterday," Daniel repeated quickly. He'd mentioned that name several times today so he sighed. "I'll get there faster if I'm not talking. Just keep both eyes out for the locals. Most of the people are pretty _upset_ tonight."

"I never would have guessed," Jack said sarcastically. "Maintaining radio silence." He let go of the button and held his weapon with both hands.

As Daniel and Breck sped through the street they saw smoke coming from the park. They both ran supernaturally fast down the empty street towards the smoke.

"Jack," Daniel called as he and Breck slowed down to a human pace when they spotted the rest of the team hunkered by the DHD.

"Whoa," Sam said in shock, aiming her gun at them when she saw the movement.

"Daniel," Jack said quietly, still scanning the park for movement with an aimed weapon. "Someone's out here. They're invisible, but every now and then…"

At that moment a fireball came out of nowhere, flying towards Daniel and Breck.

Daniel grabbed Breck by the shoulder to allow the sphere of flames to sale through them. The fire passed through Daniel's right side and nicked Breck left leg before it crashed into the ground several yards behind them.

Daniel called out in pain, grabbing onto his side where the flames had passed and catching his balance on the DHD. "It must have been too hot," he panted quickly. The bag slipped to the ground.

"It's Beth," Breck announced calmly, his eyes tracking the unseen threat.

"You all right?" Jack asked Daniel quickly, focusing a moment on his friend.

Daniel nodded, straightening a little as he found his balance.

"Bethany!" Breck called to the empty area, stepping forward with a slight limp from where the flames had brushed him.

"Daniel," Jack whispered, his eyes darting around the field again for any sign of movement. "Start dialing."

Daniel began pressing the buttons on the DHD.

"Show yourself," Breck ordered.

A pale woman with long dark hair appeared a few feet in front of Breck. It was the woman who had scratched Daniel.

Daniel paused, staring at the woman. This was the first time he'd seen her since his team left her house, and she looked quite a bit more tired and worn than she had the other day.

"They have nothing to do with this," Breck said calmly. "Let them be on their way and no harm will come to you."

"It _must _be their fault," Beth spat at the group by the DHD. "Everything was fine in our region until they arrived. Thane Donovan was the best thing to happen to our people."

"It has been many years since Thane Donovan has had the support of all of his Citizens," Breck continued just as calmly. "Many cities of his region already refuse to use slaves. They emphasize _who _they are, not _what_. Some of the technologies and medicines they produce are being used across this planet."

"Do you think the rest of us contribute so little to our world?" Beth asked seriously.

"Daniel," Jack hissed. "Let Breck take care of her. We need to get home before any more of _them_ show up."

Daniel looked at Breck for a moment and then continued to punch in the symbols.

_You learned about the Stargate from our thoughts, so do you know the sequence of symbols I'll be using to return to our home?_ Daniel's voice asked in Breck's ear.

_Yes_ Breck replied simply. Daniel reached into his jacket and pulled out his radio, dropping it at the base of the DHD.

_When this is over, dial the gate and use the radio. My friends and I would be willing to help you and your allies_. Daniel assured Breck's silently.

"We all contribute to this world. By the old laws of this region, those who didn't have something to contribute would never have been allowed to survive," Breck continued to Beth, distracting her to give SG1 enough time to escape.

_My people thank you_ Breck replied as Daniel pressed the button at the center of the device. There was an explosion of blue light from inside the ring before it settled to the flat surface.

Sam dropped her weapon and pulled up her sleeve, punching in the iris code into her remote as quickly as she could.

Beth looked even angrier. "And by those same laws it doesn't matter if I survive tonight because my crime should mean my death. These three human thieves and my mistake shouldn't be allowed to live!" She disappeared.

Teal'c, Jack, and Carter all stood, backing towards the gate with their weapons drawn.

Breck's eyes were darting around, still tracking Beth even when the others couldn't.

Daniel didn't have any weapons, but he staggered towards the gate as well, his eyes scanning the open field in an attempt to pick anything up the way Breck was doing.

"Sam! Nine o'clock!" Breck called, knowing that she'd be able to react to that terminology better than any other.

Carter swung her weapon to the left, but it was too late. Something had caught her gun.

The invisible enemy grabbed Sam by the front of her shirt collar, beginning to choke her, as Beth's other invisible hand squeezed and mangled the metal weapon.

Before Teal'c and Jack could aim their weapons towards the invisible woman, Daniel ignored the pain in his gut and used his supernatural speed to run at the place the woman should be standing and tackle the entity to the ground.

Sam fell to the ground, too, coughing as she scrambled a few paces away from the scuffle.

Daniel pinned down the invisible mass, straddling the figure. Some blood began to seep from his neck.

Beth became visible again, revealing both clawed hands wrapped around his neck and cutting into his skin.

Daniel grabbed onto the woman's arms and zapped her with electricity from his palms… It wasn't very effective.

By now Teal'c had managed to draw his Zat. He fired it at the struggling pair.

The woman let out a small cry of pain before going limp and closing her eyes.

Daniel put a hand to the injuries to his neck as he jumped away from Beth.

"Are you unharmed?" Teal'c asked Daniel urgently.

Daniel coughed a little, but nodded, his eyes glinting in the light as his stare locked onto Sam. She was bleeding.

Sam kept one hand on the back of her neck as Jack helped her to her feet. "Just a little whiplash I think." When she pulled her hand away there was some blood.

They all stood in shock for a moment.

"Did she bite me?" Sam whirled around and lifted her hair, showing Jack the area of her neck that was injured.

"It's hard to tell if it was from a tooth or a claw. Her hands do not carry the parasite," Breck announced, joining the group. "May I look?"

Sam turned her injury towards him and pulled at her collar for a better view.

Breck shook his head a little. "Dr. Fraiser will be able to tell if the infection is in your blood. The injury is minor so there's still a chance it will not take hold. You should know within four hours." Breck gestured towards Daniel. "As a precaution, stay a few paces away from Daniel."

Daniel nodded a little, "Her fingernails caught me pretty good. My shirt and hands are probably covered in the parasite."

Breck glanced at him before stepping away from Sam. "For other reasons as well. You haven't yet tasted natural blood, and it is much harder for our newest to resist the instincts, no matter how noble we were in our old lives."

As soon as Daniel bothered to notice the presence of the blood on his hands, the scent filled his nostrils and set a chill of excitement up his spine. He was instantly ready for something else to happen, almost eager for more bloodshed. He licked his lips. He could actually smell the difference between Sam's blood and his own. The energy he'd used to get to the park and struggle against Beth left him a little thirsty, and just like the nurse on the base, Sam seemed to be an appealing target. Trying to ignore the surge he was feeling, he looked up towards the wormhole.

Sam nodded, putting her hand back over the wound, but unsure of what else to say. These last few minutes might have changed her life forever, and she was at a loss.

Teal'c went back to the DHD and picked up the bag Daniel had dropped.

Breck held out his hand to Daniel. "It was nice to have met you, Daniel."

Daniel looked back to Breck with a tired smile as he shook his hand.

"It looks like the park is safe enough for a few minutes, so I'm off to help my people in what's left of my town. Hopefully you will hear from me soon," Breck ended with a slight bow. In a blur Breck was running out of the park and into his burning city towards the city hall.

Daniel sighed and turned towards Jack, taking the heavy bag away from Teal'c as if it weighed nothing. His side still ached a little, but he could tell he was already beginning to heal.

Jack gestured towards the open gate. "Let's head home."

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Daniel stepped through the gate first, receiving much the same audience he'd had when he'd left just a few hours ago: a dozen soldiers aiming automatic weapons. He lowered the bag to the floor and held his hands in the air a little as he cleared the area directly in front of the wormhole.

Teal'c was the next to arrive, followed by Sam and finally Jack. The wormhole disengaged behind him.

"Did you find anything useful?" General Hammond asked, making his way through the armed men.

"I'm not exactly sure," Daniel said, his hands still in the air. "Am I being put in the brig, or can I just go straight to my office and work on these translations?"

"Lower your weapons," Jack called to the soldiers, walking the group towards the General.

Daniel lowered his hands, picked up the bag again, and followed his team.

"What _did_ you find out?" Hammond asked a little more urgently.

"Carter needs medical attention so how 'bout we comply with medical protocol and tell you about the evil X-Men a little later," Jack suggested casually.

Hammond wasn't entirely sure about the pop-culture reference, but nodded anyway. "We'll debrief in one hour."

Teal'c, Jack, and Sam headed for the door. Daniel began to follow when Hammond stopped him.

"Get cleaned up, checked over by the doctor, and you can head to your office. There will be two guards accompanying you, but you can move about the base freely." He gave a nervous laugh, "After all, you proved we can't just keep you in the brig." Hammond cleared his throat and continued seriously. "Don't forget that Maybournee will be here in less than three hours. I hope you brought something back that Maybourne's men will want to take with them more than _you_."

Daniel looked a little grim. "Hopefully that _something_ isn't Sam."


	3. Part 3: Run

Part 3: Run

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Briefing room

Daniel had been sifting as quickly as he could through the information contained in the books Breck had given to him. Janet had attached an IV and allowed to bring it on a stand with him to his office so he continue working. He'd given the information on the blood substitute directly to Dr. Fraiser, but very little of the information he'd come across so far had been helpful in informing him of a possible cure. The books documented the course of the parasite pretty thoroughly, so at least some of his own questions had been answered by returning to the planet. Unfortunately, it might have been at the cost of Sam's health.

Sam had been checked over and her wound bandaged, but without a definitive answer about whether or not she was going to be transformed. They had attempted to disinfect the wound with a UV light treatment, but despite the slightly burned skin left around the wound, small amounts of the organisms were still present in her blood samples. Fraiser theorized that she could remain asymptomatic for a few hours even if she were fully infected, and the material in Daniel's new books supported that idea, as did Breck's assessment.

Daniel, Jack, Teal'c, Sam, and Dr. Fraiser had all been called in again for an update of Daniel's research. The NID was due onto the base within an hour, so after the briefing there wouldn't be much more time before Daniel would be asked to leave the base.

Sam sat in one of the chairs, looking anxious. The doctor said there was no problem with her continuing to work outside of the infirmary so long as she immediately reported any strange symptoms.

Teal'c and Jack had been given physicals and deemed healthy enough to remain on missions.

"The short answer is that nothing Breck gave me is a definitive cure," Daniel announced as he stood to give the group his update. "But they have been making progress."

Sam was visibly shaken by the news, wringing her hands as she sat. By no means was she ready to give up, but at the moment she felt uncomfortably powerless. So powerless, in fact, that she was at a loss for words.

"But the information he gave me means we don't have to start at the beginning," Daniel added quickly. "And we know definitively that the Gao'uld are responsible for this. Anubis ruled the planet, but Nirtti, likely under the orders of Ba'al, created this as a weapon."

Sam still wasn't reassured.

"Breck's people don't have many medicines because the infection makes them immune to everything. _Our_ medicines might make an impact on this," Daniel said, giving a quick gesture to himself. "Maybe we can develop a vaccination so at least it won't be passed on."

"There are a few people from the CDC with the proper clearance, and I've asked them to take a look at the properties of this parasite," Dr. Fraiser interjected. "I've given them an e-mail with the information."

"That really wasn't necessary, Doctor," a voice came from the stairwell leading to the briefing room from the control room.

Everyone looked up from the briefing, worried that they had accurately recognized the voice.

Col. Harry Maybourne walked into the room. "Most of my men are in your lab gathering the samples you collected from both Capt. Carter and Dr. Jackson."

General Hammond folded his hands on the desk in front of him, and looked to the new arrival, "You're running ahead of schedule, I see."

He reached into his breast pocket and held out some papers to the general. "...And with fresh orders from the President to take the Major with us, too."

Hammond took the papers and examined them.

Sam stood and looked to Hammond fearfully. "Sir?"

"We don't even know if she's been infected," Dr. Fraiser told Maybourne coolly.

Maybourne laughed. "It doesn't matter. At the very least she's been transferred under my command."

Two more of Maybourne's men came up the staircase.

Maybourne looked at Sam. "I know you have quarters here, so these men will escort you up there to gather a few belongings. I'm afraid that until we know whether you've been infected we can't authorize you to go back to your civilian housing."

"There's no need for those guys," Jack finally chimed in. "I'll walk her up there and we can be back in no time."

Maybourne smiled. "Nice to see you, Jack," he said pleasantly. "But I'm afraid, given the circumstances, I must insist." He gestured for the guards to approach Sam.

"Very well," Hammond said, looking back up from the papers. He turned back to the people gathered around the table. "He's allowed to take all material pertaining to that parasite. This document specifies all samples stored in the lab, all computer data, and any other personnel who may have been contaminated."

"Well, in that case I'm still not going to let your goons alone with either one of them as long as you're on this base," Jack said more passionately.

General Hammond turned to Jack and nodded. "I agree." He looked at Maybourne. "You _may _have the papers in order to take my personnel off this base and do who knows what to them, but as long as they're still _on_ this base I will make sure they are still treated with dignity."

Maybourne shrugged a little. "If that's what you want."

"Col. O'Neill will accompany Major Carter, and Teal'c, if you don't mind, I'd like for you to act as an escort for Dr. Jackson," Hammond announced.

Jack nodded and Teal'c inclined his head in agreement.

"Where are you taking me?" Daniel asked after silently standing at the head of the table. He glanced sideways towards Sam. "I mean _us_."

"I don't know yet," Maybourne admitted, watching Daniel carefully.

Daniel was staring intently at Maybourne, but he couldn't pick up anything worth passing along to his friends.

"I wasn't told the location because we were aware of your _apparent _telepathic abilities," he continued. He sighed and clapped his hands. "Let's get moving."

Sam looked to General Hammond again.

Hammond nodded.

She and Jack trailed out of the room, followed by one of the NID soldiers.

Daniel was watching them all carefully.

"I'd like to take Daniel to the infirmary for one last transfusion," Dr. Fraiser said, standing.

Maybourne smiled. "I think not."

Dr. Fraiser rolled her eyes with a sigh. "And why is that?"

"Obviously, it's safe to assume that if he receives a fresh transfusion of blood, he may start feeling healthy enough to escape in route to the next location," Maybourne said snidely.

The Doctor nodded a little, looking to Daniel.

Maybourne looked to Daniel. "Or was that the general idea?"

Daniel started to leave the room. "I don't know what you're talking about," he lied badly. He had silently asked Janet if she'd be willing to help him. After a few seconds of private debate as to the dangers of this parasite losing containment, she agreed for the sake of both of her friends.

Teal'c rose and followed Daniel, making a point to ignore Maybourne completely.

Another NID agent trailed behind the pair.

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Jack, Sam, and one of the NID agents walked down the hall on level 17, heading towards Sam's room.

_You can hear me, right?_ Daniel's voice called in Jack's and Sam's ears. He, Teal'c and his NID escort were on an elevator going slowly towards Daniel's office.

Jack and Sam both glanced at eachother as they continued to walk.

_Well, Sam, this may be one of our last chances to get out of here now that there's only one guard on each of us. Maybourne didn't lie when he said he didn't know _where_, we're going, but I got a very solid picture of what they'll be doing to us._

_But they don't even know if I've been infected _Sam couldn't help but thinking.

Jack looked at her, somehow having heard her as clearly as he'd heard Daniel. _Daniel, I just heard, Sam, so please tell me that's another one of _your_ tricks._

_As far as I know, it wasn't me_ Daniel confessed, the elevator stopping to let another airman off.

Sam's cheeks went a little pale.

_But I guess it could have been me_ Daniel admitted when he picked up on Sam's worry. _This is a little new to me, too._

_What do you have in mind, as it were? _Jack thought, raising his eyebrows a little as they turned down the corridor.

_Knock out your guard, get to the hatch, and we can meet on level 12, near the backup generators_.

_And then? _Jack asked.

_We wait for sunset. I'll knock out the generators, and then we can head to the surface._

_And then?_ Jack asked again.

Daniel smiled a little. _I hadn't thought that far ahead._

"What are you smiling about?" the NID agent asked Daniel briskly.

Daniel stammered a little, caught off guard by the real-world voice speaking to him. "N-Nothing. I was just thinking about one of the books I was reading."

The NID agent didn't look convinced.

"It was about one of the Thanes and his twenty-third wife's obsession with gardening ..." Daniel continued to lie. "... But I suppose it loses some of the humor in the translation."

The elevator beeped as Daniel's group arrived on level 19.

Jack and Sam opened the door to her quarters and all three trailed inside.

_I'll pack some supplies_ Sam offered, finding her knapsack and packing it with some of the things they could need- a blanket, jacket, money...

The guard was watching her carefully, waiting by the open door. "You know, we _will_ supply you with bedding," he reminded as she stuffed a military-issue wool blanket into her bag.

Sam nodded a little. "Sure, but I like this one."

The guard took a few steps inside. "You get a new one every time you send it to the laundry."

"Really? I hadn't noticed," Jack replied sarcastically as Sam continued to pack.

The guard drew his gun. "That's good enough. We can have the other things shipped."

"Fine," Sam said easily, seeing the pointed gun, but still trying to act innocent. She swung the bag over her shoulder. "I think I have enough to get me through a few days."

"No need for a gun," Jack said quietly, pushing the door shut.

The guard turned his gun on Jack.

Sam swung the bag swiftly off her shoulder and into the guard, winding him. She pulled the gun from his hands as he stumbled to the floor. "Don't move," she ordered quietly, her teeth clenched.

The guard was sitting on the floor, and he held his hands up a little.

With one swift kick to the face, Sam sent the guard to the floor, unconscious.

"That had to hurt," Jack commented with a wince.

Sam tucked the gun into her backpack and dragged the guard behind the bed so with the door left open passersby wouldn't be able to see him.

Jack calmly opened the door and they headed swiftly to the hatch.

_The Colonel and I are on our way up_ Sam thought.

_No_ Daniel said quickly. _We should leave Jack and Teal'c out of this, at least_ _for now._

_You should have mentioned that earlier 'cuse the guard already saw me helping Carter_ Jack replied quickly.

The radio being carried by the NID agent escorting Daniel beeped.

"_Cooper, report_," the radio called.

The agent grabbed his radio and spoke as they reached Daniel's Office. "This is Cooper. We just got to Jackson's Office."

_Crap_ Daniel relayed to his friends. _Sam, you better hurry to the hatch. They're doing some kind of radio check-in and it won't be long before they know the other guy's out of commission. _Daniel opened the door to his room and all three of them trailed in.

Teal'c shut the door behind them.

As the guard turned to tell Teal'c to open the door, Daniel whirled around grabbed the guard by the shoulder. He felt the charge run through his arm, and into the agent.

The agent fell to the floor, unconscious.

Daniel shook his hand a little. The electricity had left his own hand feeling a numb, but he knew the man was still alive.

Teal'c reached down to check the man's pulse.

"He's probably going to be fine," Daniel assured. "I don't think I put too many volts into him."

Teal'c nodded as he dragged the man to the far wall behind the desk, just as Sam and Jack had hidden the other agent from people walking the halls.

_We have a problem _Jack reported.

Jack and Sam were outside with door leading to the ladder, their hands up as two NID agents at the end of the hall aimed their guns at the pair.

_Can you hear me, Carter? _Jack asked.

Sam nodded a little.

_Take me hostage_.

_Excuse me, Sir?_

_Take me hostage, we get through the door and then seal the hatch._ _You can make it to the meeting place in five minutes and I'll play 'discarded hostage' on one of the landings then use the old 'They made me do it'_ _card._

Sam looked at Jack.

_Consider it an order_ Jack added.

Sam reached forward and caught him around the throat with her arm, backing towards the door as if he were her shield.

A shot rang out from behind them.

Sam called out in pain as she was hit in the shoulder by an NID agent who had approached them from the other end of the corridor.

A second shot from the same gunman hit her in the leg, sending both her and Jack to the floor.

The three armed NID agents rushed forward.

One of them grabbed Jack by the arm and dragged him out of Carter's reach while the other two aimed their guns again.

Jack let out a groan as the agent pulled him to his feet.

"Are you alright, Sir?" the agent asked.

His shirt was splattered with blood from Carter's wounds, but one spot over his own shoulder continued to darken. He put his hand over the spot and a pain shot through his whole arm. At such a close range the bullet that had gone through Carter's shoulder and been stopped by his own.

_Make that a big problem_ Jack thought, followed by a few profanities that Jack hadn't said aloud in several years.

"What is wrong?" Teal'c asked.

Daniel had been silent for several seconds as he learned bits and pieces of what had just happened. He sighed, his eyes turning back to meet Teal'c. "Turns out we're scrapping that plan."

Teal'c raised an eyebrow questioningly.


	4. Part 4: Oasis

Part 4: Oasis

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Daniel woke, disoriented. He sat up and shielded his eyes as he scanned the small, very bright room.

With the layout of the room, he could have sworn he was in an un-furnished version of his old, off-base apartment. After a moment, that ray of hope had flown and he realized it was just a freshly-built structure using similar blueprints. There was still a strong smell of sawdust and paint.

He was in the bedroom, but rather than sitting on his rarely used, queen-sized bed he was on an army-issue cot. The lighting in the room was also very different. For one, windows had been excluded from the floor plan, and several more overhead lights were added to compensate. He stood and took a few apprehensive steps towards the open door that led to the hall, onto the kitchen and living room.

He couldn't hear anyone around, not even idle chatter in the distance, and no barriers had been put in place to prevent him from exiting the bedroom. He stepped into the hall, and, still, nothing happened.

The last thing he remembered was returning with Teal'c to the briefing room to confess to Maybourne and General Hammond what happened. He couldn't really remember what was said, but at some point Janet came up to tell them about Sam and Jack. For the life of him, he couldn't remember what Janet said and what actually happened after she arrived.

He wandered towards the living room. The place seemed so familiar... The NID had obviously gone to great lengths to reconstruct a near-exact replica of a place he sometimes called home. It reminded him of when he'd first moved into that building: there was no furniture except for a single wooden bookshelf holding some of the books from his office. The kitchen was equally barren: a miniature refrigerator stood where the large one should have been; the open cupboards revealed that they were just as empty as the rest of the house; and several stacks of white paper cups were in a plastic bag by the sink.

The sliding glass door that was supposed to lead to the balcony instead opened into an entirely empty, warehouse-sized room.

"Nice to see that you're up and about, Doctor Jackson," Maybourne's voice called from the corner of the living room. He was suddenly standing beside the bookshelf as if he'd appeared from nowhere. "Or perhaps I should just start calling you Daniel. After all, I'll be getting to know you pretty well over the next... Well, who knows how long?"

Daniel was a little confused. It still felt to him as if no one were there: no heartbeat, breathing, or scent to signify that a living person was standing less than ten feet away from him. Although he was relieved to not experience such a strange sensation, he wondered if he'd been given a drug to dull his senses. He certainly hadn't been cured. His teeth and fingernails felt as sharp as ever, not to mention how thirsty he was.

"Don't you just love alien technology?" Maybourne asked rhetorically, passing his holographic hand through the wooden bookshelf. His entire image distorted for a moment and then solidified. "I'm broadcasting from the control room about a hundred meters away."

"I agreed to come with you and not make a scene, but why do you even _want_ to keep me here?" Daniel demanded. "Why didn't you just lock me in a tiny cage like you do everyone else you _illegally_ imprison?"

"This is all perfectly legal, I assure you," Maybourne said cheerfully. "And despite the obvious budget constraints on our projects, the President insisted that you be kept comfortable for the duration of your _recovery_. Apparently he appreciates your past efforts to save the world." He smiled. "On that note, you'll find a few packages of O-Positive in the refrigerator and some cups on the counter."

"Where are Jack and Sam?" Daniel demanded.

Maybourne shrugged. "Jack's probably up at his cabin recovering from that hit to the shoulder, and I think Major Carter has been prevented from going off-world until she's been psychologically evaluated."

Daniel wasn't entirely sure he was telling the truth. "So Sam wasn't infected?"

Maybourne nodded. "As much as we would have liked to have another subject for study, we got her here and she still wasn't showing any symptoms. Our scientists discovered that there weren't enough parasites present in her blood to initiate a transformation. She went back to SGC yesterday. She was shot, so I expect she won't be going off-world for a few more weeks."

He nodded a little, still hesitant to believe the good news. "How long was I unconscious?"

"72 hours." He smiled a little. "We gave you a few transfusions spiked with tranquilizers. We weren't convinced that you'd cooperate with us during your initial examination."

This time Daniel smiled. "Why do you think you _can_ keep me in here?"

Maybourne stepped forward, still as cheerful as ever. "The area outside this room can be flooded with high-powered UV lights at the slightest sign of movement." He gestured towards the balcony doors.

Somewhere towards the farthest end of the room he heard the lock click and a door open. The whole room outside his apartment was suddenly brighter than anything Daniel had ever seen.

Daniel stumbled backwards into the kitchen and crouched behind the counters to hide from the lights flooding into the room through the glass doors. He'd been so distracted by Maybourne that he hadn't noticed the footsteps of the approaching soldier in charge of opening the door on cue. "You've made your point," Daniel called calmly, holding up his arm to shield his already singed face.

The door in the distance clicked shut and the lights turned off.

"This room is your only haven, and as long as you're inside here we won't be doing anything to you," Maybourne assured.

Daniel came out of the kitchen to face his captor again. The right side of his face was burned red from the demonstration. He craned his neck and opened his mouth to stretch the stinging, itchy skin. The color paled back to the shade of the rest of his face, and he resumed his conversation with Maybourne.

"If we bring you through those doors, the UV lights will be controlled manually, and you'll go through some standard testing. There are tables and some equipment at the far end of that room. We'll keep the UV off so long as you cooperate. If you step out of line or try to escape, we can turn on the lights again. That little hostage situation back at the SGC won't be effective here. Everyone on this project is a soldier first and will die rather than give into your threats."

Daniel was getting irritated. "You should know me better than that. I wouldn't have hurt anyone at the SGC and I honestly don't plan on hurting anyone while I'm here."

Maybourne nodded. "You might not know yourself as well as you think. You're the one who typed up those papers from the planet. What makes you think you're any different from them? If you need blood, you'll find a way to get it. Oh, and on the topic of alien technology and the possibility of you attacking my staff..." He clapped his hands together once and disappeared.

Daniel stood still for a moment, waiting for something to happen. Just in case, he backed up a few steps into the kitchen to assure that the exterior lights weren't about to be triggered again.

Maybourne reappeared by the bookshelf he'd first been standing beside. He held up a small disc, about the size of a milk bottle top, with a red blinking light in the center. He looked very excited, bursting to tell him all about the device, but waiting for Daniel to ask for the information.

"What's that supposed to do?" Daniel asked mechanically as he rolled his eyes. It was apparent that Maybourne wouldn't just _give_ him the answer.

Maybourne smiled. "Glad you're catching on." He relaxed a little. "It was created on a planet where migrating carnivores, roughly the size of a t-rex, would come through and eat travelers on the way between towns."

"Long story short?" Daniel asked. As much as he always enjoyed hearing about the plights of people from other planets, at the moment he was more concerned with his own problems.

Maybourne sighed, disappointed that he'd have a less colorful story to tell. "It masks the vital signs of anyone holding this device. It keeps their heart rate, body temperature, respiration, and scent entirely masked from all other living creatures. It can't fool machines, and their voices can still be picked up, but one day we can adapt the technology for special operations." He smiled again, hoping for some reaction.

Daniel didn't say anything.

"The point is that every person you come in contact with will be wearing one of these." He waved the medallion a little. "Hopefully you won't start thinking my staff are an appealing snack, but who knows for sure?"

Daniel sighed. "So explain to me again _why_ you want me here?"

Maybourne made a gesture as if setting the pendant on an invisible table in front of him. When he dropped it, it disappeared. He put his hands in his pockets. "We know everything that was in the books you got from your friend Breck, but our organization wants to verify the accuracy of the data. Besides, not all the details of your _condition_ were in those records. We need a living specimen to answer a few _specific_ questions."

Daniel was shocked. "You'd be wasting your time. The books are right. They've been gathering information for centuries." He raised his voice, finally too irritated to contain his emotions, "Why are you _really_ keeping me here?"

"It should be obvious, shouldn't it?" Maybourne asked with another chipper grin.

Daniel nodded. "You want to make this parasite into some kind of biological weapon, and you need an endless supply of samples."

Maybourne smiled and touched his finger to the tip of his nose. "You knew exactly what I was thinking."

"But that's how Breck's world ended up the way it is now; the Goa'uld made this parasite _as _a weapon. Noone benefited."

"Ba'al successfully kept Anubis away from Breck's planet. It cut him off from resources and manpower." He looked around the room again. "We didn't do too bad of a job here, but you'll have to earn your furniture back. If you play nice we might even give you a television." With that, Maybourne's hands clapped together and he disappeared.

Daniel could hear some people approaching. The door opened again. He backed as far as he could into the kitchen, expecting the light. The only lights to come on were a series of normal halogen lights. It was bright, but it wasn't burning his skin.

"It's time to come with us," a woman's voice called after a few more seconds.

Daniel stepped out and saw five people: two well-armed men in uniforms and three women in lab coats. Maybourne had been right about the way the devices worked on him. It felt like they weren't even standing there; he felt like a normal person again. If he concentrated, he could pick up a few stray thoughts, but otherwise they may have been holograms just like Maybourne.

"Right this way, Doctor Jackson," one of the men added, gesturing with his gun.

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"General, it's been three weeks and there hasn't been a single word from Daniel," Jack said in an irritated voice. "Or from Carter!"

"You knew contact with them would be infrequent once they were removed by the NID," General Hammond said calmly from behind the desk.

Jack had been on desk duty every day for the last three weeks while his gunshot wound healed, and every day Teal'c would stop by Jack's office to ask about word from Daniel and Sam. The handful of people with clearance high enough to know about the parasite would also ask him about how Daniel or Sam were doing whenever they passed him in the halls. O'Neill finally convinced himself to ask the questions that protocol wouldn't normally allow.

"Didn't you make sure the President put in a good word for them with those psychopaths?"

"Of course we did but..."

"Then one of them would have dropped us a line, or made a call," Jack insisted.

Hammond sighed. "Regardless of how either one is being treated, the location is secured."

"Then they _are _being treated like a criminal?" Jack asked as casually as he could, his eyes catching a new photograph on the wall. He squinted a little to examine it.

"Just about all we're going to get out of the NID is that they are both still alive."

Jack looked at Hammond.

"Yes, I've tried to get an update," Hammond admitted. "They're alive," he said with a shrug.

"I want to talk to them, or at least _one _of them," Jack said. "I know how twisted the NID can be, and for all we know _alive_ means knocked out and strapped to a table with half their organs missing."

Hammond raised his eyebrows.

"Blame Fraiser," Jack said defensively. "She's the one who's been coming up with that stuff. That's part of the reason I'm down here! Everyone who knows what happened to Danny and Carter have been acting a little off ever since they left. Knowing _our _people have been locked up... We just want to hear it from their own lips that they're ok."

Hammond nodded a little and was silent for several seconds.

"Plus the NID should try to figure out why I wwas't infected," Jack added. "If they are making a weapon, they should at least know how to disarm it. Fraiser hasn't had access to the parasite since Daniel left. Maybe I'm immune or maybe my blood has a cure."

"Or maybe you were just lucky." Hammond nodded again, already having decided before the last portion of Jack's speech. "I'll make some calls."

000000000000000000000

Daniel was lying on the couch, staring at the ceiling. He was sore all over, tired, dizzy, and above all hungry to the point of being able to think of nothing else. It was the middle of his third day since the _Keepers_ decided he should be punished for another attempted escape. This wasn't the first, nor would it be his last, attempt at freedom, no matter how awful this type of punishment felt. He had kept his word and his morality during every attempt, not injuring NID soldiers in any way… Maybe that was exactly why he had failed.

After each failed attenpt they've waited only two days before resuming their daily delivery two bags of O+ to his doorstep at 5 pm sharp. By the end of the second day he had always been too weak for the scientists to run the tests they'd planned. Even if he drank enough water to fill a swimming pool, his body couldn't keep up with the needs of the parasites unless they supplied him with at least one unit daily. His performance on their tests was improved if he was allowed one unit every 12 hours.

By the start of the third day, Daniel realized that this time was probably not about punishment. He knew it was likely that they were going to see approximately how long he could go between transfusions. One of the books from Breck's planet generalized that after four days the transformed person, suffering from starvation, would attack anyone who came near.

Daniel's eyes turned towards the door, and he raised his eyebrows. He could hear four people approaching, and one of them wasn't wearing an alien device.

When it got to be this long since he'd eaten, he could hear the Keepers even more clearly as they approached, even with those devices to mask their life signs. It was at these times that he became more familiar with the layout of the building and the routine these soldiers were supposed to follow.

When the Keepers were coming to run practical tests in the empty room, two or three people would walk down a staircase, travel a winding hallway, and approach through the door to the right of the room. If they came to run simple blood tests and check his vital signs, two or three would come from a freight elevator and bring equipment through the door straight out from his glass door, near the examination tables. When people were coming to bring him food, one Keeper would approach, alone, from an elevator, walk down a hallway, and appear through the door to the left of his room. Aside from his first day, that was the only protocol that had happened during his five weeks of confinement.

This time, something was different. He could tell they were four people approaching from the doorway to the left – that he was sure of - and only three were walking; the other was unconscious and being dragged. Two of the sets of footsteps stumbled a little and had an erratic pace. The third was walking with heavier steps, probably armed and acting as a guard while the other two carried the fourth person.

He sat up slowly, keeping his balance on the arm of the sofa as he got to his feet. They were at least halfway down the hallway now, and he hated how that made him feel. It had been weeks since anyone without the alien device had been so close to him, and he knew they were only going to come closer. As long as he was alone, he felt like he could last a little longer, but as soon as anyone was close enough for him to hear even their footsteps approach his cell, he felt he was capable of acting like any other starving animal.

The one with the heavier footfalls opened the door and held it for the rest. The normal halogen lights clicked on. He was a soldier holding a large, heavy gun. The other two trailed in, dragging a bound and gagged person, just as Daniel had thought.

He licked his lips. This must be another test, the same test that the vampires on the other planet administered to freshly infected people.

The soldier let the door slam. He stopped walking, looking annoyed. "Hold," he ordered the others. His eyes turned upwards, towards one of the video cameras. "What are you waiting for?" he shouted.

The UV lights clicked on from above.

Daniel stumbled towards the kitchen, the one spot in the front room that was shielded from the light coming through the glass doors. His vision clouded from the head rush and dehydration as he fell into the shade of the kitchen counter, his heart beating fast. Once he hit the floor his vision cleared, but the room was almost too bright for him to open his eyes.

The doors opened and the two soldiers carrying the person walked in.

"What-" Daniel cleared his throat. It had been days since he'd spoken to anyone. "What are you doing?"

There was no answer and he was too weak to pick up any stray thoughts from them.

Daniel heard the rustling, then a thud as they dropped the unconscious man, and the glass doors closed again with a click.

He heard one of them mutter softly to the other as they walked back the way they'd come. "If we end up with skin cancer from these high-powered sunlight laps every day, they better give us a retirement bonus."

The other one elbowed him and whispered. "You know regulations. We're not supposed to talk until we're back to command. They say that _thing_ in there can hear us."

The soldier with the gun gave the simplest reply, "Shhh!" as he opened the door for the other two. They walked through, and he followed, the door clicking shut behind him. All the lights in the room went out again.

"_Thing_," Daniel muttered, almost as shocked by their view of him as he was by the fact that he'd give anything to just jump up, grab onto the person on the floor, and drink his fill before even bothering to examine exactly who the man was. He looked towards the unconscious man, doing his best to try to avoid thinking about what he was feeling.

The man was wearing a generic dark green uniform and a green hat. He didn't smell the way he thought a person should, but when he was so hungry he guessed his senses might be getting desperate.

Daniel leaned against counter's cupboards, looking towards the ceiling-anywhere but the man on the floor. "C'mon... you're better than that," he assured himself with a sigh.

Maybourne appeared by the bookshelf, just as he had several other times. "You don't need to worry about infecting him. Consider it a peace offering. You get what you need, and we get your continued cooperation."

Daniel glared at Maybourne.

"He's just some Jaffa unlucky enough to follow an SG team through the gate," he continued as if there was nothing wrong with the arrangement. "It turns out _your _parasite can't take hold in a Jaffa. It can't do anything to convert them. We don't know for sure what keeps it from happening, but so far the big brains say it has to do with their immune systems. Since your parasite was designed by a Gao'uld to use against humans, they might have built in a safety feature for the Jaffa soldiers." Maybourne strolled towards the Jaffa and bent down to look at him for a moment. "Besides, it looks like he'll be dead pretty soon anyway." He straightened up and looked at Daniel.

Daniel's hands were balled up into fists. _No wonder the guy smelled different; he wasn't human._ He didn't need Maybourne jeering at him when he was doing all he could to keep from grabbing onto the Jaffa and doing exactly what Maybourne was saying. He licked his dry lips again.

"There's no way out of this," Maybourne said simply, strolling back towards the bookshelf. "It's either him or... you don't eat. Now, if you'll excuse me, I seem to have a guest." Maybourne clapped his hands and disappeared.

Daniel closed his eyes tightly. It seemed to be true. He couldn't imagine any way out of this, and he wasn't sure how much longer he could wait.

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"Nice place you have here," Jack said sarcastically to the back of Maybourne's head as he entered the office attached to the main control room. "Everything a sadistic bastard like you could ever want."

Maybourne was standing beside his desk with his eyes closed, his hand on a glowing crystalline paperweight.

The wall behind Maybourne's desk was full of monitors that were showing several different angles of Daniel's apartment and the area outside his room. Jack was a little confused when he saw Maybourne on one of the monitors standing near Daniel. Maybourne was saying something. As he strolled towards the bookshelf, his image jumped from one screen to the next. As soon as Maybourne's image clapped his hands and vanished from the screen, the paperweight stopped glowing.

Maybourne opened his eyes. "Hi, Jack. What brings you to our little oasis?" His hand moved off of the crystal and he strolled back to the chair behind his desk.

Jack realized that crystal must have been some sort of machine, so he tried to not act too surprised. "The middle of a desert as a prison for a _vampire_ is so _predictable_," Jack said with a sigh. "Obviously, I'm here to see Daniel."

Maybourne didn't answer.

Jack frowned. "You guys claim to be all about _arming our planet against alien threats_... or something like that," he added quickly. "Well, Daniel has been doing that too... _only with a conscience_," Jack emphasized. "The President let me come here because he wants to get a more reliable report on Daniel's conditions."

"Complying with the President is more of a curtsey than a mandate when it comes to my organization." Maybourne admitted with a smile. "Besides, the only difference between the Daniel that's helped you save the world, and the Daniel we're holding, is that now _he's_ become the alien threat."

Jack gave a genuine laugh. "You're more of a threat to our planet than Daniel is, even with that parasite making him a little weird..." Jack hesitated and continued a little more quickly, "-er than anyone who speaks that many languages and travels to other planets every couple of days."

"You don't believe me? See for yourself," Maybourne said. He turned around and gestured towards the monitors, sliding his chair to the side of the mural so Jack could see every one of the screens. Maybourne pointed to the one with Daniel in it.

Jack took a few steps forward to see the details of the images a little more clearly.

Two people were on the floor near the kitchen, just inside the sliding glass doors. The image wasn't very clearly shown on the small security monitor, but all he could see was one person was laying still on the floor and the other was bent over him. Another screen beside that monitor showed the same scene from a different angle, but in no more detail.

"What's going on?" Jack demanded.

"It looks like he's having some dinner," Maybourne said as cheerfully as ever.

Jack was furious. "Take me to him right now," he demanded.

"I think he's a little busy," Maybourne said in a voice of mock-concern.

Jack glared at him. "The President gave me authorization, and I said _now_."

Maybourne sighed and got up from behind his desk. "I'm serious, Jack. It probably isn't very _safe_ for you to go down there." He gestured towards the abstract sort of metal and crystal paperweight on his desk.

Jack continued to watch Maybourne carefully.

"But, if you insist in talking to him, I have another way."

Jack looked at the device. "You mean what you were doing when I came in?"

He nodded. "Press down the short green crystal with your index finger. Your image will be projected into his room. You can walk around like usual, and when you want to leave, clap your hands. Your real hand will lift up and you're be back in the room."

Jack quickly pressed the crystal with his hand and suddenly found himself standing in the living room of Daniel's apartment. "Daniel! What the hell do you think you're doing?" he demanded, walking past the couch and towards the pair on the floor.

Daniel paused, not turning towards his friend. For a moment, even he wasn't sure what he'd done. He'd been sitting a few feet away, trying not to think about the man, and suddenly he was drinking from the Jaffa's arm.

Jack still couldn't tell what had been going on, but he had a pretty good idea. "Did you just _bite_ that guy?"

"Is that really you, Jack?" Daniel asked at a whisper, still not looking towards his friend.

"Who else would it be?" Jack asked quickly.

"Maybourne."

"Ah," Jack said quickly. "Good point. Well, _assuming_ I'm me, tell me what just happened!" he said more urgently.

"It must be you," Daniel said just as quietly, still not turning around, "since you have such great timing." He looked around for something to stop the bleeding. He saw a rag on the floor by where he had been sitting, so he reached forward and grabbed it.

Jack walked over to see exactly what he was doing. Daniel was holding a bloody kitchen towel to the arm of the unconscious man.

"I didn't have a choice," Daniel said quietly, still not looking at his friend. He tied the towel around the cut and looked up to Jack, wiping his mouth with his hand as if it could hide what he'd just done.

Jack was shocked and a little disgusted. All he could do is gesture at the guy on the floor and then at Daniel.

Daniel sighed, licking his lips to get the last of the blood from them. He was still very hungry, but at least he could think again. "They haven't given me anything to _eat_ in more than three days, and today it looked like they were going to test me the way the vampires on Breck's planet wanted to."

Jack was still finding it hard to form words, but he tried to calm down enough to ask his next question less harshly. "So were you?" He gestured again.

"Going to kill him?" Daniel offered calmly. The parasites were apparently very appreciative of the meal because, even with what he'd just allowed himself to do, he was still feeling more relaxed than he had been in days. "He was dying before I touched him. Maybourne said he can't be transformed by the parasite, but I-I couldn't have..." Daniel's expression tensed a little, wondering if he really was telling the truth. "I mean..."

Jack wasn't really convinced. "When a dying man needs help, the Daniel I know would have _helped_ him, not taken a bite out of his arm."

Daniel clenched his teeth, finally fed up with having to excuse every one of his actions. He stood face to face with the projection of his friend. "I've been shot, and burned, and they broke my wrist. It's been _three days_ since they gave me anything to help me recover. You'll excuse me, Jack, if I finally gave in. One second I was sitting there, trying to convince myself that I'm any better than those the vampires like Bethany, and the next I've already got my teeth in him," Daniel shouted a little more harshly than he'd intended. "I blacked out!" He licked his lips again and turned away from his friend, looking down at the Jaffa. Daniel could feel his injuries mending, but he could also feel his thirst becoming stronger again.

Jack didn't really have a reply. He was stunned. Daniel never shouted like that at anyone unless they disserved it. "What did you just say?" he asked, trying to contain his renewed frustration.

"Sorry," Daniel said after another minute. Above all else, he needed to stay calm. Daniel wanted to make sure he didn't slip up and hurt the man again. He looked his friend straight in the eyes. "I swear I had no idea what I was doing, and under different circumstances I might have been able to last a few more hours. That's the most I could have hoped for... a few hours." He looked away again. "At least we know I have three days before I really lose it."

Jack nodded a little. "With the things that creep Maybourne was saying about you..."

"This was the first time they put someone in here with me." He looked back to Jack and then continued. "I almost made it to the freight elevator shaft," he said more distantly. The starving parasites must have already finished off their meal because the euphoric feeling had completely dissipated. All that was left was an ache in his gut and a fresh pain in his chest… And the Jaffa's heart was still beating just a few feet away.

"You _what_?" Jack asked, still irritated and disgusted, but foremost confused by the change in subject.

"I drank what was left in the refrigerator and found a blanket to use when I got to the surface," he continued. "I put all the energy I could into that fixture over the sink." He nodded upwards, still looking at his friend. Now on top of the aches he was just left with the reality of his nearly having finished off a dying man. Jack was right by using the phrase _the Daniel I knew_ because he defiantly wasn't the same man he was two months ago. "If I'd have just tried to step across that threshold the motion sensors would have turned on twenty-two panels of UV lights."

Jack could see scorch marks on all of the lighting fixtures in the kitchen. He realized they must have been from sparks that shot out when the light bulbs blew. "Twenty-two _panels_? That's one hell of a power bill."

"I shorted out the whole base, from what I could tell," Daniel continued with a laugh. "I passed through the glass doors-literally-, made it across the room, and was almost halfway down the hall to the main stairwell when the lights came back on. I covered up pretty fast but by then the soldiers were already surrounding me."

"So you tried to escape?" Jack was finally calmed down enough to really follow the story.

"This place is a lot smaller than I thought it was, at least compared to the SGC," Daniel said. "Just seven floors up and I'd have been at the surface. You and Maybourne aren't even in the same building as me. Turns out the device you're using to talk to me has a fifty-five mile range. About twenty miles from where I am is a town. I could have had shelter and found a car. Eventually I could have made it back to a gate."

"Aren't you supposed to _not _know stuff like that?" Jack asked. "What with being their prisoner, and all?"

"It took me a long time to find the information. They have some sort of device that blocks me from hearing their thoughts. That, and no single person knew everything I'd need to get out." Daniel leaned against the back of the couch, looking towards the kitchen. "The people who have the closest contact with me all the time are blindfolded when they're higher than the third floor, and they were all transported on cargo planes and covered trucks. I think the third floor is where they have most of the labs. It's just far enough away from me that I can't hear them. I got most of the above-ground specs from one of the armed guards." Daniel smiled a little. "He was on his lunch break and took a short cut through a staircase on the fourth floor. Most of the others don't even know they're in a desert."

"So you wanted to get back to the SGC?"

Daniel shook his head a little, folding his arms.

"Of course not," Jack smiled. "It would have been easier for you to sneak across the border to Russia and use the gate they have in storage."

Daniel just nodded. "Any word from Breck?"

"Nothing," Jack said. "With all the super-powered troubles they were having that night he might not have survived. We dialed once, but the wormhole wouldn't connect. Guess you might want to revise your escape plan."

Daniel nodded a little, considering what else he might do if he escaped and quickly drawing a blank. "What actually brings you to this little zoo?"

"You don't call, you don't write..." Jack complained in a very casual, joking manner. "I'm just making sure they didn't have you locked in a freezer or chained up in a dungeon."

Daniel raised his eyebrows. "Dungeon?"

"You can blame Teal'c for that last one."

Daniel nodded a little. "So... you're just here to catch up?"

"Well, _yeah_," Jack said simply. "How have you been?"

Daniel played along and answered in a sign-song voice. "You know the usual. Daily blood tests, the occasional sunburn... Every now and then I manage to get myself shot," he added, pulling up his pant leg to show a softball-sized bruise with a red scab in the center. "It should start to clear up now that they've _fed_ me." That wasn't the only pain that hadn't gotten around to healing itself. His headache was getting worse than it had been before Jack arrived. Admittedly, his wasn't exactly staying as calm as he probably should have been.

"That's from three days ago?" Jack said with a wince. "And not so much as a band-aid from those mad scientists?"

A pain shot through his chest, but he ignored it. "Is Sam alright? When I got here t-they told me you went to your cabin to recover and that she wasn't infected so they sent her back to the SGC."

"I did for a few days," Jack said as calmly as he could. "But Carter never came back. I was hoping you knew where she went."

Daniel shook his head and sighed. "They told me that neither of you were infected."

"Fraiser didn't have your blood samples to test them with mine. The sneaky SOBs here probably got some of mine, so I hoped they are trying to figure it out."

"When I went back to the planet, Breck told me the God of their planet was Anubis and that Nirrti was involved. Breck and I figured out that Baal probably used Nirrti to create this parasite as a weapon against Anubis," Daniel said quickly. "Ask around. If you could follow-up on that angle, maybe you won't need my blood to find a cure."

Jack looked around a little, trying to keep from acting on his impulse to clap his hands just so he could go back to the office and punch Maybourne. "Is it just me, or didn't you used to live in a place like this off base?"

Daniel nodded. He went into the kitchen and filled one of the paper cups with water, drinking it and then crumpling up the cup.

"You need water?" Jack asked, a little surprised.

"Do you _ever_ read even a _little_ of the reports people type up?" he asked, his eyes falling on the Jaffa again. "

Jack folded his arms, also looking down at the unconscious man. "Who _is_ that guy?" He positioned himself to see the face more clearly. "He looks familiar."

Daniel tilted his head a little, scanning the man's mind. "An average Jaffa," he said simply, pulling the hat off his head to reveal the tattoo. "Strong-willed but no match for the NID."

"That's where!" Jack said quickly, pointing at the Jaffa as if he'd just spotted a face in a crowd. "A few days after you left, SG-7 was coming in hot and he was the only Jaffa to follow them through before we closed the iris."

"They took his symbiote three days ago; the same night I tried to escape," Daniel continued. He looked hard at the unconscious Jaffa. "He's almost dead. Even if I hadn't taken some of his blood, I don't think he'd every have woken up again," he added in a sad voice.

"Well, he _was_ trying to kill all of us," Jack confirmed.

"His name was Rowak, and it wasn't _him_ trying to kill you. It was some Gao'uld he thought was a God." He clenched his teeth, angry at himself and the universe in general. His own heart was racing and it was just making his head hurt more. He raised his voice again out of frustration. "This _soldier_ spent his whole life training to die in battle. Instead, he's taken apart piece by piece to be used by the NID. They interrogated him for information on the Gao'uld for the last two and a half weeks. After they'd stripped him of his honor and made him betray his God's secrets, they took his symbiote. When he was finally too weak to answer questions, they decided to _feed_ him to some monster they have locked up in their basement. He doesn't even know it's happening..." He crossed one arm around his middle and put the other to his head, his temple throbbing and his chest working painfully.

This was the Daniel that Jack really remembered, and he was very glad to see some of _that_ Daniel alive and well inside this new version. "Even if you weren't locked up in this place they'd have still just let the guy die," Jack assured. "We all do things we might not like when we want to stay alive. In your case, you were basically under the mind control of the parasite. Did they ever figure out if your little bugs really are like the big worms?"

"They never told…" The room started to spin. Daniel wobbled and he fell to his knees. It felt like something was squeezing all the air out of his lungs while at the same time impaling him with a rod through the abdomen. One arm was still around his middle, the other bracing him up from the floor. All he could do was let out a faint groan as the pain began to spread.

"You OK?" Jack asked urgently.

Daniel shook his head a little, lowering himself gently to the floor. He was lying flat on his back, just as he had several times over the last few days. Before it had helped, but now it was steadily getting harder for him to breath.

Jack was getting nervous. "This isn't just a way of getting out of this room right?" he asked at a loud whisper.

Daniel shook his head a little, gasping for air. He rolled over on his side. It must have been the Jaffa blood. Breck's records never mentioned Jaffa on their planet after the parasite was introduced, and since Maybourne said they can't be transformed that was the only thing that could be making him feel so sick. "Jaffa," he panted. "I shouldn't have... Bad..."

"I know biting the guy was _bad_." As had happened several times already, Jack wasn't following Daniel's train of thought. "Daniel, just tell me what's wrong," Jack said more urgently.

"Transfusion," he panted. "Not Jaffa. Need regular human." That was all he could manage to say.

Jack could feel a hand on his shoulder, and faintly hear someone calling his name. He looked down at Daniel. "I'm going to be right back with help. You gonna be ok for a minute?"

Daniel nodded quickly, concentrating hard on just getting another breath.

Jack clapped his hands and found himself standing in Maybourne's office.

"We hear that Daniel is requesting human blood," Maybourne said smugly.

Jack's concerned expression jumped back to on-guard irritation. There was a red light blinking near one of the monitors. "Only you could say that in a way that's _creepier_ than the _actual_ vampire! It's not like he was asking for a snack! You guys _made_ him sick when you gave him that Jaffa and now he _needs _it. Do you have any medics heading down there?"

Maybourne nodded. "We have a doctor and a guard on standby to verify his condition."

Jack glanced at the monitor when he saw the lighting change.

The UV panels outside Daniel's mock-apartment had been activated.

The monitors in that room only played the audio softly, but he could faintly hear Daniel screaming in pain.

"What the hell are you doing now?" Jack shouted, charging at the monitors to get a better look at his friend's condition.

Daniel's image flipped onto his stomach and was helplessly reaching for the foot of the counter, trying to drag himself into the familiar shade of the kitchen. He wasn't moving very fast, and even on the black and white monitors Jack could tell that Daniel's bare arm was being burned very badly.

"Shut off those damned lights!" Jack shouted at Maybourne.

Maybourne walked over to a panel of un-marked buttons beside the monitors and hit several of them in sequence. "He would have gotten away from the light if he could have," he agreed remaining calm and unconcerned.

The lights outside his room reduced to half the intensity, signifying that the UV lights had been turned off and the halogens had taken over.

Daniel's arm stopped thrashing for the shade and fell motionless to the floor.

"Gosh, Jack, you think we'd let our favorite little vampire get all burned up?"

Jack glared at him. "Whatever you've been doing to him, stop it. Give him a break."

The nurse rolled Daniel onto his back, unsnapped the Velcro of his shirt and slid the IV directly into Daniel's chest.

"We've been doing just as the President ordered: treating him better than any of the Gao'uld we have ever managed to capture."

"That is a pretty poor standard! _Daniel_ and _Gou'ld_ should never be put in the same category," Jack shouted back, irate. "Daniel's just a nice guy who has to go on a liquid diet because of some bugs in his system. That's all. Period. And are you even working on a cure? Did you try to figure out why I didn't get infected? Am I immune or something? Or were you just planning on keeping Daniel in that room until you had all _your _questions answered?" Jack demanded.

"To make a cure, we first have to study the parasite, and see exactly what..."

"Cut the crap," Jack interrupted.

Maybourne looked into Jack's eyes. "We aren't currently working on a cure, and we haven't looked into the reason for your recovery."

Jack threw his hands up in the air and went back to the device, pushing his finger into the small green crystal. He found himself by the bookshelf again.

The nurse and the guard jumped a little when he materialized, tense around the _creature_ they were supposed to look after.

Jack walked over to the duo so he could get a better look at Daniel.

Daniel had been flipped onto his back, his breathing labored. His right arm was so badly burned that it looked like it had been dipped in some sort of flaky black batter and allowed to dry.

"Daniel," Jack said to him gently. "Doin' any better?"

Two more soldiers arrived with a gurney, loading the Jaffa onto it to remove him from the room.

Daniel's eyes moved up to his friend, but he couldn't answer, his mouth still open to gasp for air.

Jack looked to the nurse. "How is he?"

"A direct line will cause the heart to circulate the transfused blood more quickly. Research suggests that it should start to recover as the heart circulates it." The nurse squeezed the bag a little to speed the flow. "And we've brought another package for it to drink once it's strong enough to move around."

"Did you just call him _it_?" Jack asked quickly.

The two guards carrying the Jaffa opened the door to the hallway. It slammed heavily shut behind them.

The remaining guard and nurse both looked at Jack, as if confused by his comment.

Jack was getting even more irritated. "Does it make it easier for you to treat him like garbage when you don't call him a _him_?" he demanded.

They still didn't answer. The package of blood was nearly empty.

Jack threw up his hands in frustration.

"With respect, sir, it's not really a person," the guard finally said. "Not anymore."

"_His_ name is _Daniel_ and _he's _one of the best people I've ever known," Jack replied.

"It may have _been_ a good person before, but it's not one now," the guard continued to argue. "Look at it," the guard said with a nod towards Daniel with an expression of disgust. "It drinks people's blood to survive, and has strange powers. It can read people's minds or just electrocute them with its hands. It's more like a Goa'uld than a human; it's a dangerous animal."

"And yet he's _still_ the most moral person on this base," Jack replied, very frustrated.

The package of blood attached to Daniel was finally empty. The nurse pulled the needle from his chest, and gave a nod to the guard. She turned around and walked through the open glass doors.

The guard backed out, his weapon aimed at Daniel even though Daniel hadn't moved.

"Let me ask you one little thing before you go," Jack called, standing in the line of fire as he followed the guard out.

The guard raised his eyebrows, and kept his weapon aimed at Daniel through Jack's hologram.

"Has Daniel actually hurt anyone since he got here?"

The nurse turned around, but neither answered.

"He hasn't zapped _anyone_ with his hands?" Jack offered. "Maybe tried to bite a guard? Or scratch someone? Oh, has he talked to you in your head? 'Cuse I bet that if he wanted to he could sing a song over and over again until you wanted to shoot yourself."

"No, sir, it hasn't," the guard admitted, almost in a disappointed voice.

"Not even when he tried to escape?" Jack continued to prompt. He passed through the open glass doors, but seemed to have hit a barrier a few paces outside the door frame. He stopped. "A big, bad, alien _monster_ who can walk through walls just _happens_ to get recaptured without a fight?"

The guard and nurse still didn't answer, and kept backing towards one of the doors.

"So if he's such a _dangerous animal_, why hasn't he tried to hurt a single person?"

"It bit the Jaffa," the guard said quickly, stopping for Jack's reply.

Jack laughed. "If you so-called _decent human beings_ hadn't starved him for three days he _wouldn't_ have hurt anyone!"

Again the guard didn't answer. He turned around and followed the nurse across the empty room towards the door they'd arrived through.

"Besides, as a member of the NID I bet you've done some pretty despicable things just as part of your job description," he shouted as they kept walking away from him. "You'd better spread the word to his other jailers that it's actually a _person_ you have locked up alone down here!"

The door slammed shut as they left the room.

Jack turned around and went back into Daniel's apartment.

Daniel's burnt hand reached towards the package of blood the nurse had left on the floor beside him.

"Feeling any better?" Jack called as he made it to his friend.

"Thank you for saying that," Daniel said softly with an airy voice. It was still a little hard for him to breath. Daniel held the bag in his burnt hand as he used his good one to sit himself up. He leaned against the counter.

Jack shrugged. "I can't believe they were calling you an _it_."

Daniel shrugged a little as he used his teeth to tear open the edge of the package, just as he had always done before they'd started to starve him. He started to drink from the bag.

Jack looked away from his friend, distracting himself from Daniel by passing his hand back and forth through a lamp.

"Unless you guys find a way to get me out, this is what the rest of my life is going to look like," Daniel said as he finished the last few drops of the bag and tossed it towards the sink.

"That does it," Jack said finally. "Screw the regulations they have at this nut house. I'm going to _make them_ take me down here."

Daniel slowly pulled himself to his feet. Steadying himself, he walked over to the couch and plopped down heavily, putting his face in his hands and bending forward towards the floor. "Don't bother. It would probably be better for everyone if you didn't."

Jack didn't argue. "I'll give my report to the President and see if I can swing something."

"Thanks, Jack," Daniel said unenthusiastically, still not looking at him.

Jack walked in front of the couch. "Give me a chance to do something before you make any more escape attempts, ok?"

"I don't think there will be any more escape attempts," Daniel said quickly with a flat voice, still not looking up.

"Daniel?" Jack said in his usual scolding tone. "I mean it."

Daniel let his hands fall and then he looked up with another sigh. "So do I," he finally said with much more passion. "Where would I even go? The SGC would send me right back to Maybourne and if I can't dial into Breck's planet, then why should I even bother?"

"Just stay put," Jack said. "It'll just get you hurt before I can do something."

"All I have to do is step through those doors, and there'll be enough direct light to turn me to dust in a few minutes," Daniel added, his focus shifted to the blackened skin covering his arm. Using his other hand, he lightly scratched at the charred covering. It flaked off with ease, revealing new, completely healthy pink skin beneath. "That is, if they'd ever let me die."

"Don't plan the barbeque yet," Jack argued quickly. "Give me at least a week. That's a full seven days sortof week, not just a work week. When the President hears they haven't looked into why I didn't get infected I'm sure we can get you reassigned to the base, at least for a while."

Daniel nodded, brushing the last of the leathery ashes from his skin and finally looking back to Jack. "A week."

Jack clapped his hands and reappeared in the office.

Daniel put his feet up on the couch, shielding his tired eyes with his forearm as he reclined.


	5. Part 5: Lost

Part 5: Lost

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Jack was sanding in Maybourne's office, ranting at the man about how cruel he was being. "...And I just _hope_ you end up in an even _hotter_ place one day for everything you've done!" He finally took a breath.

"Our hands are tied, Jack," Maybourne said a little too cheerfully. "Daniel is the only infected person we have _immediate_ access to."

"That's double bull. Bull number one, you still have Carter. Number two, you probably have a gallon of his blood in storage and how did you know a Jaffa couldn't be infected unless you tried."

Maybourne kept smiling. "You wouldn't be suggesting that we purposely infect _another_ person just to get Dr. Jackson and Major Carter off the hook, would you?"

"Of course not," Jack said. "But doesn't most of your research require blood _samples_, not actually an on-site guinea-pig?"

Maybourne paused. "We're exploring several different facets at once. Their presence makes this easier."

This time Jack smiled. "I have a feeling I'm about to make your job a _whole_ lot harder."

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"I'm not going to say that's crazy, Colonel, but I'd still like to know what makes you think it's a good idea," Hammond said from the chair behind the briefing table.

Dr. Fraiser, Dr. Bill Lee, Lieutenant Colonel Reynolds, and Teal'c had all been summoned to the briefing room to hear what Jack's thoughts were on Daniel's condition. Major Paul Davis had also come to the SGC to report on the President's position. They already received the initial briefing when O'Neill returned from his trip four days ago, but now that his report had been review by the President and General Hammond, it was time for them to decide what would happen next.

Hammond continued to stare at him.

"It's not like I'm proposing that he come with us on missions... at least not right away," Jack added. "But it's _Daniel_ we're talking about," he added pleadingly, almost as if that statement was all that was needed to justify his proposal. "And you didn't see the conditions they had him in."

Hammond pulled a paper to the top of the stack. "'...A fully furnished replica of the apartment Daniel was renting off-base,'" he read from Jack's report. He raised his eyebrows.

"I guess when you put it that way..." Jack said with a sneer.

"General, I have to agree with Colonel O'Neill," Dr. Lee said. "Since I'm here, presumably, to tell you my opinion as a scientist, their methods are erratic, at best. If they keep this up, I'd be surprised if they could develop any treatment even with _years_ to study the parasite. And it can't be a coincidence that Colonel O'Neill fought off being infected when the level of exposure was the same as Major Carter and Dr. Jackson."

"I agree as well," Dr Fraiser said. "With all of the information Daniel was given by Breck, it stands to reason that they would probably need limited access to Daniel, himself, in order to study the behavior of the parasite. Ideally, Daniel _would_ be present, but if his mental state really is being pushed to the brink, I don't see a reason why the Colonel's idea of confining him to _this_ base wouldn't be a viable option."

"Computer models can be created to mimic the observed behaviors of a parasite," Dr. Lee continued. "So they might not even need very much blood."

Dr Fraiser nodded. "The key to a cure seems to be in finding a way to kill this parasite without causing toxicity of the blood or the combustion of the parasites themselves. I need to study how the Colonel's blood interacts with the parasite."

"It's not your job to analyze the life forms and weaponry found off-world in the long-term," Davis reminded. "We leave that to bases like Area 51. However, the President is willing to transfer Dr. Jackson to your custody if you can guarantee the safety of this planet."

"Again: _Daniel_," Jack stated simply.

"And _again _I need to remind you of the security breaches you had when he was on this base," Davis continued.

"What would happen if Jackson disagreed with the General's orders again?" Reynolds asked rhetorically. "Would he use his super powers to run off to another planet? Or would he use them to leave this base and try to survive on Earth, undoubtedly infecting people along the way?"

"Something SG-1 almost allowed just over a month ago," Hammond added with a thoughtful nod.

"From Jack's report, I'd say there isn't much of a chance of anything like that happening again unless he attempts to return to Breck's world for more answers about his condition," Dr. Fraiser answered. "Breck's planet has been unreachable for months, and Daniel has been told this information. He seems so desperate to get away from the NID that he'd probably follow any rules we put into place."

"And think of the money they'll save," Jack added. "They won't need a bunch of empty levels at some facility in a desert. Now they can have some small, normal setup in a lab. If they need samples of his blood, we'll air-mail it."

Hammond looked down at the papers in front of him, considering the proposal.

Jack sighed. "The bottom line, General, is that Daniel actually _said_ he was going to let those security lights burn him to death. He'd rather _die_ than stay there the rest of his life. It's only a matter of time before that stunt they pulled with the Jaffa is tried again with a regular person_._"

Davis gave a nervous laugh. "I doubt they would even _try _that. If they did, the President would stop the whole operation."

Jack looked over to Davis. "So, they cleared it with the president when they tried to _feed_ one of their prisoners to another prisoner?"

Davis's levity and confidence in the system waned.

Jack continued, "He gave me a week and if we don't save him, there's a pretty good chance he won't survive long enough for us to find a cure."

Everyone was quiet for a moment.

"If anything happened to Dr. Jackson, including our removing him from their custody," Dr. Lee began in a small voice, "wouldn't the NID just use the blood samples to infect one of their own personnel?"

Hammond thought another moment. "Given the NID's reputation, is there any chance that they already _have _used the samples to infect another person?"

"I was wondering that, too, but it's hard to tell if they'd take that kind of risk," Dr. Fraiser answered. "They'd obviously injected at least one Jaffa with some of Daniel's blood to know that they can't be infected. Since every individual develops different abilities as a result of infection they'd be curious to study a new infection, but they can't guarantee that their new _patient_ would be as easily controlled as Daniel."

"Better the devil you know," Teal'c said very softly, speaking for the first time by using an Earth phrase he had grown fond of.

"If I can get Daniel close enough to Maybourne, we can see what those guys have really been up to in their labs. And maybe we can figure out what they're doing to Carter," Jack said.

The room was silent for a few moments, and then Hammond nodded a little. "You have permission to escort Dr. Jackson back to this base." He looked around the table. "All we need to do is figure out how we'll keep Daniel from being sedated on the way back here and then I'll begin making the arrangements."

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Jack was sitting in the cafeteria, using his spoon to unenthusiastically poke his blue jell-o. It had been six days since he'd seen Daniel and he couldn't help thinking about what Daniel would be like when he got back to the base. After what those _scientists_ put him through there was still no cure. Coming here might make some difference in the research and his morale, but they still can't contact Breck's planet... For now, he decided to just needed to think about tomorrow.

Dr. Fraiser came through the doorway holding a single sheet of paper, her expression very serious and her face a little flushed. She scanned the room to find Jack and moved purposefully through the lunch-time crowd. She sat down across from him, not saying anything.

Jack looked at her questioningly, also not speaking. She was a stickler for protocol and _manners_ so this was the first time Jack had ever seen her skip the part about asking to join him.

She laid the sheet of paper in front of him and then folded her hands on the table in front of her, still acting strangely.

Jack kept his eyes on her for a moment, trying to guess what the paper was before having to actually read it. After a few seconds, he picked up the paper and read through it. His teeth started grinding a few words into it.

Fraiser's expression softened a little, her cheeks flushing again.

"This is crap," Jack said loudly, slamming the paper down on the table and causing his spoon to ring against the glass bowl.

Dr. Fraiser sighed. "I don't know what to think." She dropped her hands to her lap. "The General got that report from them about half an hour ago. _They_ claim Daniel killed himself yesterday morning, but if they knew we were taking him maybe they're lying."

"_Maybe?_" Jack asked, still frustrated. "Of course they are!" He lowered his voice a little as the other diners glanced in his direction. "It's been 6 days now, but it would have been only 5 yesterday. Daniel agreed to give me a _week _to get him out." He glanced at the paper again.

"At least they're still letting you on their base tomorrow," Fraiser said. "I'd like to come too, if that's alright."

Jack nodded. "You're in."

"They'll be letting us see the surveillance and have some of the remains for our own analysis," Fraiser added.

Jack was still ready to shoot someone, but he tried to remain calm. Janet didn't need to hear his temper. Maybe that's why Hammond had sent Janet to tell him. "They could have faked it."

"If they're saying he's dead, I doubt they'll change their mind," Janet agreed. She hesitated before continuing. "Playing the devil's advocate, didn't you say he was ready to let himself die?"

Jack nodded a little. "But he promised not to do anything for a week."

"Maybe there were circumstances," Janet suggested. "Like the incident from your report…"

Jack gave a weak smile, still holding out hope. "It's a little too convenient that last night they find out he's being transferred and today they claim he's already dead."

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Daniel opened his eyes. He was laying on his back on the floor of a new room.

"It's about time you woke up," Maybourne complained from somewhere in the room.

Daniel rubbed his eyes as he sat up.

The large room was completely white and stunningly bright. He was enclosed by thick glass within the plain room. The enclosure was twice the size of his apartment's living room but as unfurnished as he last prison had been. There was an army-issue cot in the far corner of the room with a stack of books piled on top of it. There was a door about ten feet in front of him. Between himself and door was another piece of glass, set back from the door by 3 feet and just wider than the door itself. It seemed that if they opened the door, he'd need to nimbly maneuver a tight turn to make it out of the room before the door closed.

Daniel's eyes began to adjust. He could see the walls outside his room were about 20 ft away from the glass at the back and the sides. To the front, 30 ft from his entrance, was a set of elevator doors. On the ceiling he could see the familiar rows of UV lighting panels.

"Is this more like the prison cell you had in mind?" Maybourne asked gesturing absently to the room. "An aquarium?"

Daniel looked over at Maybourne, squinting a little to focus. Maybourne was wearing one of the devices around his neck and standing just on the other side of the glass door. "Why am I here?"

Maybourne laughed heartily. "Well, the good news is that Jack's a man of his word."

Daniel's eyes widened as hope took hold.

"So, naturally, we told him you're dead," Maybourne added just as cheerfully.

Daniel's jaw went a little slack with shock and horror. "W-What? Why?"

"We've already discussed this," Maybourne insisted, walking around the outside of the glass enclosure. "What do you think of your new room?" He rapped on the glass. "This isn't actually glass." He shrugged. "Obviously."

Daniel watched him, his temper rising. His one chance of leaving this _prison_ was destroyed in the name of greed.

"Things should continue the same way they did at the other facility," Maybourne continued.

Daniel could hear the elevator buzzing and clicking, barely hearing Maybourne's explanation of the next series of tests. "What did you tell the SGC?" Daniel interrupted, looking at Maybourne again.

Maybourne paused. "You know the projector I was using to enter your room?"

Daniel nodded.

"It can project other images..." He gestured a little with his hand. "And we happened to record certain images with security cameras."

Daniel's teeth were clenched. Asking the same question over and over, and only getting partial truths each time. "What did you show them?"

"Actually, they won't be seeing the videos for a about half an hour," Maybourne explained. He glanced at his watch. "Right now Jack and your Dr. Fraiser should _just _bearriving at the other location, and in another ten minutes they will be escorted to your empty holding area."

Daniel's temper was being tested. Apparently when they drugged him they didn't bother giving him a blood transfusion so that was just adding to his problems. "_What's on the video?_" he rephrased.

"Nothing too exciting. We only had to forge the last 24 or so hours of your life," Maybourne continued. "As far as Jack, and the rest of the United States for that matter, will ever know is that we put another intended _meal_ in your room to see how long you are able to co-exist with an uninfected human under normal circumstances."

Daniel's eyes shifted momentarily to the door. Any minute the elevator would arrive for undoubtedly devious purposes.

"Our portion of the video begins with you waking up in the evening and not finding any breakfast in the refrigerator. You sit and read some books for an hour or so, then are taken for experiments that 'we weren't permitted to show the SGC.' When you get back you read a little more, followed by laying on the couch doing nothing... Theoretically at this point you've not had a transfusion for nearly a day."

The elevator ground to a halt.

"As you may remember, the last time we did that experiment, you were kept away from people who weren't wearing one of these," Maybourne reminded, lifting the red medallion. "So we made it look like we locked someone in the room with you at a time when you should have been be getting pretty hungry."

The door opened and a soldier escorted a blindfolded, gagged prisoner whose hands were cuffed together. Both men were wearing the medallions. Behind the soldier was a woman in a lab jacket, also wearing the device.

Daniel stood, looking to Maybourne for an explanation. Just a week ago he'd attacked the Jaffa, and it seems that they would soon recording a legitimate copy of their forged video.

"... So naturally, you did your best to avoid harming the person. Unfortunately you weren't able to stop yourself, and this time Jack wasn't here to interrupt you."

"So you made it look like I killed someone?" Daniel demanded. Glaring at Maybourne.

Maybourne nodded. "And when you realized what you'd done you ran out of the room. The lights kicked on, and an electrical malfunction prevented us from turning off the UV lights. By the time one of the soldiers made it to the manual breaker, you were already burned to death."

"And now you want to see it play out the same way?" Daniel asked for clarification.

He held up a finger, smiling again. "Everything but the last part. You see, this glass is a form of shielding one of our teams recovered from a crash site on PX2-972."

Daniel thought a moment. "The planet with the green rain clouds?"

Maybourne nodded. "The glass was on the outside of one of the enemy ships. We think it crashed after a mechanical malfunction, so this stuff still works like new."

Daniel walked over to where Maybourne was standing, the glass separating them by less than two feet. "And you _theorize_ that it should keep me in here?"

Maybourne smiled, spreading his arms as an invitation.

Daniel's arm shot towards the glass, intending for his hand to pass through the material and knock his smug captor across the room. Instead, Daniel's hand hit the glass with a sickening _crunch _and a sharp pain shot from his fingers to his forearm.

The glass was completely unmarred with not so much as a smudge left behind.

Daniel clenched his teeth together and grabbed onto his throbbing hand. He bent forward, cradling his arm, but trying not to cry out from the pain. He didn't want to give Maybourne any more satisfaction.

Maybourne let out another laugh. "Now that's what I call good craftsmanship." He gingerly tapped the glass with the back of his right hand.

Daniel's hand was already starting to swell. He guessed he'd broken at least two of his fingers and it had been too long since his transfusion for them to heal instantly.

Maybourne tapped the glass again. "Like I said, it's not really glass, but I think Dr. Bullard can explain it a little better."

The woman in the lab coat stepped away from the group with whom she'd arrived, speaking as she walked over to Maybourne. She spoke rapidly with a hit of anxiety in her voice. Daniel had never met this scientist before. "It's one of the densest material we have ever been able to construct. You see, it's dozens of thin layers with a self-sustaining, continuously-fluctuating current running between each of these layers. We know your abilities make energy-based weapons useless, but we realized that the complexity of this material was exactly what we needed to prevent the parasites from knowing how to pass through it."

Daniel was still clutching his hand, more frustrated and angry than he'd been since he left the SGC. "And you're going to lock that guy in here with me?" he demanded, nodding towards the blindfolded man.

"We actually have a little office pool going to see how long he's going to live," Maybourne explained. "I'd tell you about my bet, but that might be considered cheating."

Daniel gave a nervous laugh. "Yeah, the last thing you want to do is treat someone else unfairly." His hand wasn't throbbing as badly.

"This is all in the name of science," Dr. Bullard said passionately in a much less anxious voice.

Daniel's face became serious and a little sad. "You actually believe that?" He flexed his injured fingers. Whatever break he'd suffered had repaired, but his hand was still tinted red and a little swollen.

She was stunned by the question. "Of course." She looked over to the soldier and motioned to him. "Why else would we do this?"

The soldier removed the medallion from the prisoner's neck.

Daniel closed his eyes, turning away but unable to resist taking a deep breath. The scent was so strong in the room that it was like opening a door to a flower shop when the shielding-device was taken away.

The soldier walked the blindfolded man towards the cell, stopping in front of the door.

Daniel momentarily thought about making a break for the door. Even with the extra glass barrier he thought he could probably make it.

"We should probably mentioned the other functions of the glass..." Dr. Bullard suggested to Maybourne.

The doors opened.

Daniel rushed for the door, but as he passed the barrier his skin began to burn as badly as if he were being burned by UV lights. Daniel stumbled a little, squinting as he backed away from the door.

The guard shoved the man into the room and activated the door lock.

Instantly the burning stopped. His skin had been singed all over. Still flinching, he turned towards the scientist and Maybourne.

Dr. Bullard spoke. "The glass can filter out UV light frequencies. When your doors open, the lights outside of the room shift to the UV spectrum. With the extra barrier in place, you won't be harmed by the light unless you're directly in front of the open door."

"More importantly, it should slow you down long enough to make deliveries," Maybourne added.

The man was trying to shout despite his gag.

Daniel turned to the new arrival, doing all he could to block out the jumble of emotions and thoughts coming from him. The man had been a typical spy. He was Russian and had joined the NID as a means of getting his country more information about the technology recovered from Stargate exploration...

"Maybe this is a good time to go over the newer rules," Maybourne said.

Daniel looked over at Maybourne, wishing more than ever that he could just have just 5 seconds in the same room with him.

Dr. Bullard continued for Maybourne. "You will be given a living specimen once or twice a month under similar circumstances. You will be expected to leave the body directly in front of the door to ensure easy removal..."

"Yes, she said _body_," Maybourne emphasized. "We won't take him away unless he's dead. We have an incinerator on the premises. In spite of what you might think, we really don't want a bunch of _vampires_ running around any more than you do."

"If you attempt to escape, impair the duties of our personnel, or refuse to cooperate in some other way," Bullard continued calmly, "your very next delivery will be a living specimen."

Daniel was horrified and unable to hide his expression from Maybourne.

Maybourne began laughing. "These rules should be simple enough, shouldn't they? Misbehave and we'll keep giving you someone to kill. Cooperate completely in every way and I may be able to limit the _fresh_ meals to once a month. Understood?"

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"C'mon, Daniel wouldn't have done something like that," Jack complained to the group watching the video screen as he saw Daniel attacking a man.

Jack and Dr. Fraiser had just returned from the NID base where they found a charred mark on the floor but not much other conclusive evidence. They had been given a scraping from the floor and a copy of the security footage. Dr Fraiser verified that it was Daniel's DNA and she and Jack had been shown the video footage of the incident.

The same group who had debated Daniel's return was now gathered in General Hammond's briefing room, watching the surveillance for the first time.

The images on the screen showed Daniel pacing in his kitchen and then running at the restrained prisoner who was standing by the couch. The single cameras could only show so much, but it was evident when the man fell to the floor not moving that Daniel had bitten him. Daniel wiped his mouth slowly, backing slowly towards the glass doors. He turned and ran towards the glass, passing into the exterior room by using his abilities. Another camera angle showed the UV lights kicking on and Daniel's skin immediately starting to seer, blister, and burn. His figure fell into a smoldering pile a few feet in front of the door. He'd stopped moving, and his body was on fire. The tape continued to play for over 3 minutes, flames dying away but smoke continuing. Four soldiers came into the room, one using a key-slot by the door to deactivate the UV lights. The image dimmed, but it was evident that Daniel was dead.

The soldiers aimed their weapons, approaching Daniel cautiously. One called for Daniel to answer.

There was no answer.

The same solider used his boot to try turning Daniel onto his back. In stead of turning over, the shirt pulled away from what was left of Daniel's body and ashes making up the torso scattered where the shirt had been disturbed.

Dr. Fraiser looked away from the screen, made uneasy by even a glimpse of the images had already seen once before. Jack looked a little pale. If it was a fabrication, it was a very powerful one. Even Teal'c looked jarred by the supposed death of his friend.

There was silence at the table for several seconds.

General Hammond turned off the video as scientists in lab coats began prodding the body and disturbing more of the ashes as they investigated. He turned back to Jack. "Do you believe it's been staged?"

Jack didn't answer right away.

"You said it yourself, Colonel, he was suicidal," Lieutenant Colonel Reynolds reminded.

"After what he did to the person they put in his room, maybe he thought we wouldn't _let_ him come back," Dr. Lee continued.

"Unless _all_ of it was staged and he never actually hurt anyone," Jack finally said, more defensively than he'd intended.

Dr. Lee, Lieutenant Colonel Reynolds, and Major Davis shifted slightly in their seats, skeptical of the suspicions but remaining silent.

Janet kept her eyes focused on her folded hands, not speaking either.

"Under normal circumstances," Teal'c began slowly, showing more emotion than he usually allowed, "I would be inclined to agree with O'Neill. In this case..." He made a long pause. "...I can only hope that DanielJackson has found peace."


	6. Part 6: Found

Part 6: Found

000000000000000000000

8 years later

Daniel was laying on his cot, staring at the ceiling in his nearly pitch dark room. The glass walls emitted a faint blue light that was never extinguished.

During the first three years the NID had updated their technology a handful of times. One of these upgrades devised a pair of metal wristband with a self-generating electrical field. The bands worked much the same way as the walls of his cell: he couldn't make the bracelets, nor the skin in contact with them, pass through solid objects. Not only was he surrounded by an unbreakable wall, but now the base had the added security of keeping him from passing his entire body through solid objects of any sort. The bracelets were only removed during specific ability exercises, and the metal plating the bracelets was a material too durable for him to remove them himself. Just six weeks ago the bracelets had begun malfunctioning. A month ago they were forced to upgrade these simple bands in a crude and painful way.

The funding at this site had been gradually falling once the NID's level of corruption had finally been revealed. So many of the once pristine, cutting edge amenities were being replaced with whatever they could find.

The strong, sleek individual bracelets were now manacles, gauntlets covering most of both forearms and connected to each other below the wrist. The connection was not by chain or by welding, but by a single, half inch diameter bolt threaded between the bones in his forearm arm. A small power source was attached to the bold and stored under a thin panel in the gauntlet. The constant pain, numbness, and the conductivity of the metal was found to be as effective as the expensive, sleek alternative, but these new shackles were never removed because of the invasive nature of how they were attached.

Before the funding drop, they had also expanded on the masking technology all of the base personnel had once been forced to wear. Now there were at least two larger generators. One was placed several floors above him-it might have been at the surface level, but he'd never really been able to tell. When the personnel activated it, which was to say that unit was never deactivated, he couldn't hear a thought or heartbeat from anyone even a floor above him. He could still hear footsteps and indistinct chatter, but nothing he could hear clearly had _ever _been of any use to him while trapped in that room.

They also placed one of the devices on the same level as his room, outside his glass cell. Most of the time they left it on... except on days when they gave him a live meal.

That had been three days ago. The man had been dead for two days now and the generator was still turned off.

As much as he detested the process, he'd come to terms with the expectations they had. Each time he reminded himself that by killing the person they put in his room, and cooperating with the scientists, he'd be saving the life of whoever they had slated as his next meal. At first he'd tried to resist them, but in the end he was forced to give into the needs of the parasites. He would black out and find his cell-mate bleeding severely or already dead - their status dependent on how many days the NID had been starving him.

For the last six months he had done little else. Fewer scientists and doctors came to examine him. He had become an executioner, nothing more.

Daniel had cooperated with all the wishes and whims of the ever-changing staff of scientists, and finally been allowed to negotiate some conditions of his imprisonment. They agreed that when the person had suffered enough blood loss to lose consciousness, the emitter would be activated prior to the person's death. Daniel's only job at that point would be to end their suffering within an hour, otherwise he would risk their infection causing the transformation. He would leave the body by the door and someone would take it to the incinerator.

He'd asked this provision because the random thoughts running through the minds of his supposedly _criminal_ victims in the moments before they finally died was more disturbing than anything he'd experienced. As he killed them, Daniel felt and saw glimpses of the best and worst moments these people had ever experienced… unless the emitter was powered on.

That was the best he could manage.

In some ways his new job was worse. He could refrain from finishing his _meal _for a longer time when the emitters were on, so he had to consciously make a choice to drain the last of their life from them. Cooperating didn't guarantee that his next packaged meal would be soon, so he would always drink as much as he could from a person.

The man laying by the door had been dead for two full days, and the NID hadn't fulfilled any of their arrangement: Daniel had had to feel the man die, and no one had come to dispose of the body that he'd left in front of the door.

The NID had caught this man smuggling technology out of one of their bases, intending to sell it. Petty theft was something the NID wasn't very fond of, so they put the man into Daniel's cell three days ago, and nearly two days had passed since the man took his last breath.

Daniel could feel his hunger growing by the minute. He reached onto the floor beside his bed, slipped a stiff, numb finger around the top of the bottle of water and drank a quick swig. It wasn't what he needed, but it helped. He put the bottle back where it had been before and leaned back onto his bed. He sighed and closed his eyes, hoping to sleep.

A gunshot sounded in the distance, somewhere above him.

Daniel's eyes shot open. The room was still dark, and, as usual, there didn't seem to be any footfalls or movements within his earshot. The upstairs emitter was still working perfectly.

A gun fired again, this time closer.

Daniel stood, closing his eyes again to concentrate on sounds and movements. He knew the room so well that he easily walked to the glass monolith in front of the door, tilting his head in an attempt to catch the sounds.

Something was different; something was going on upstairs...

Even with as hard as he was concentrating on letting all the sounds in, the emitters almost completely muffled the voices. At the moment, he could hear the distant footsteps of at least a dozen people near one another, and a scattering of another dozen running through the building. They moved quickly and he still couldn't make out any words.

Several more shots were fired; an exchange of gunfire.

From what he'd learned about the facility, he was at least six stories down from the surface. One floor from the surface was the main labs. The only access to his portion of the facility was by way of the single elevator taken from the lab level. Between where he was kept and the lab level, it was solid stone. He was in a very deep sub-basement.

"The first two rooms are secured," a distant voice shouted, a faint whisper to Daniel.

"Proceeding to the lower level," a different voice called more calmly.

Daniel could hear the elevator grinding downwards, and then silence enveloped the room. The emitter in his room had powered on.

It suddenly occurred to him that he wasn't sure who would be raiding this facility, and, consequently, he didn't know if he was about to face even worse conditions than he was currently in...

He smiled to himself. The moment he was removed from the building, he could escape very easily. He was definitely in need of a meal, so if these invaders were mercenaries or other rogue NID agents, he knew exactly what to do to get out. Once he was out of range of the UV lights, he could go anywhere. Even so far below the surface he knew it would be hours until the sun came up, and he'd do anything to get away from this place.

The elevator stopped.

Whoever they were, they weren't talking. Daniel took a few more steps towards his glass doors, hoping to see his unsuspecting saviors as soon as the elevator doors opened.

The doors opened and a smoking canister flew out. It hit the floor and exploded loudly with a blinding flash. The lights in the room turned on at the same moment, the motion sensors activated by the debris.

Daniel put his arms up to shield his eyes. His ears were ringing. His focus on seeing the invaders through the darkness had made the lights seem all that much brighter.

Several soldiers in green fatigues with varying amounts of armor rushed into the room, aiming their weapons wildly until they all focused on the one boxed-in figure with a hidden face.

Daniel lowered his arms, squinting at the brigade. "Who are you with?" he demanded.

There was no reply, all the soldiers just staring.

"Are you Doctor Daniel Jackson?" the leader of the team asked.

Daniel was still having a hard time seeing the soldiers clearly, looking into the blurry area where the door should be. A few more blinks and his sight began to clear. Once it did, he saw several shocked faces he remembered from the SGC. Those particular soldiers lowered their weapons slowly, their mouths agape. Daniel fell to his knees, overcome as much by relief and shock as by his hunger. "Yes," he said finally.

"That's impossible," one of the other men said. Instead of a uniform, he was wearing slacks and a grey shirt under his bullet proof vest. He carried a handgun. "Our official records matched yours."

The first man spoke into the radio, "Team leader reporting to operations. Basement secured. Send the General down immediately. Special acquisition; codename Breck. Holding our position and awaiting orders."

Everyone in the room continued to stare at Daniel.

"Are you all from the SGC?" Daniel asked his captive audience.

The first man answered. "Joint operation. Homeland security, National Intelligence Department, and Stargate command."

"NID? You guys realize that's who put me in here, right?" Daniel could hear the elevator descending. It had been so long since he had been involved in the world above that he hadn't heard of Homeland security.

"They were rogue," the second man said. "I'm supposed to clean up whatever is left of them."

The elevator door opened and Jack O'Neill stepped out. He squinted a little, unsure if he was seeing what he thought he was seeing, "Danny?"

Daniel was just as surprised. "Hi, Jack," he said very softly. Jack was dressed just like he was ready to head out onto a mission through the gate. He wore a vest, black ball cap, and carried an automatic weapon hanging at his chest. The only difference Daniel could immediately see was Jack's hair had become completely gray.

Jack tried to say something else, but stopped. His friend looked so much different than he had the last time he'd seen him. He hadn't aged a day, but his hair was longer than Jack had ever seen it and shaggy like he hadn't had it cut in over a year. The facial hair was patchy like he had had a shave in the last day but no mirror. His clothing was scorched in some places, and blood-stained in others; it also looked to have been neglected for some time. His feet were bare and the soles were black, reinforcing the theory that Daniel hadn't been able to bathe in a while. Daniel's arms were bound together by the heavy manacles and the fingers on his hands rested at odd angles with a grayish purple tint to their pallor.

Jack turned to the second man. "How could your guy on the inside not know they had him here?"

"All we knew for sure was that they had this basement," the man insisted.

"So for all you knew this was the place they stored their extra toothbrushes?" Jack pressed.

"Just be glad we came in here knowing about this level," the man replied briskly.

The gathered soldiers stood watching the argument between their two supervisors.

Daniel cleared his throat, now cross-legged on the floor.

Everyone looked towards him.

"Hello," Daniel said casually with a slight wave of his bound hands, "Sorry to bother you but I'm still in this big glass cage."

Everyone was silent again, looking at him as if they'd forgotten he was there at all. Then their eyes shifted to the pile of clothing directly in front of the glass door. A few of them craned their necks, wondering if the heap would start moving.

"And I'm guessing you have some medics upstairs?" Daniel continued. He licked his lips. The devices were still functioning, so he couldn't hear what they were thinking. On the bright side, at least he could put two words together. If he was distracted by the unfiltered crowd he might not be able to make his case. "It would probably be best if you brought me a few units of blood before you turn that off." He gestured to the emitter calmly.

They were still not replying.

"And then there's that guy," Daniel added quickly, gesturing to the pile of un-moving cloth near his feet. "He's been dead two days."

Jack realized that the blood on Daniel's shirt wasn't his own. "Last time I checked you could walk through walls. What's keeping you in there?" Time might have changed his friend more than he could see from the outside.

"Two problems. First, the walls are made out of something with electricity running through it. Alien tech was adapted to make a prison." Daniel held up his bound hands to show the heavy metal bands. "Second problem is this. They keep me from moving through anything. Other down side, I haven't been able to feel my fingers since they put the bolt through my wrists."

The gaze of everyone in the room fell on the gnarled, discolored hands.

"H-How do we open your door?" the man in the suit asked nervously. The rumors and documentation surrounding Daniel's _condition_ were obviously a little more real than he'd assumed. When Daniel spoke he could see the sharp canine teeth brushing his lower lip. The rogue element within the NID hadn't always been honest in their reports, but seeing the dead man at Daniel's feet and his own request for blood made it obvious: Daniel Jackson really must be a _vampire_.

"You see that panel over there? By the elevator button?" He gestured again, this time towards a covered keypad. "The code changes every day," Daniel added with a little more excitement. This was the closest he'd come in the last three years to making it out of this basement. "But it shouldn't be too hard to disable."

"C4?" Jack suggested, his face growing more serious as he realized that the lack of compassion shown by Daniel meant that the man wasn't the first to be left in that cell.

Daniel shook his head. "It's energy-based. Whatever you try to hit it with is reflected and magnified."

Jack could tell that he was speaking from experience.

Still no one replied.

Daniel looked at the still stunned faces. Even with the emitter functioning perfectly, he could read the fear in the faces on the soldiers on the other side of the glass walls. He sighed. He'd waited years to be freed from that room, so an extra couple days wouldn't hurt... as long as he could just get something to drink. Daniel spoke in a more sedate manor. "When my doors open, the lights around all of you change to UV. You can take him out. Just leave me a package of blood and a few bottles of water..." he added, "and I'll be fine in here until you decide what to do with me."

After another few seconds of pondering, Jack tapped his radio, still watching Daniel. "This is O'Neill. All teams report."

"Team Leader 2 reporting the ground floor fully secured and personnel being taken into custody. Headcount: two prisoners, no injuries."

"Captain Adams here, from Team 3. Base personnel are being escorted to the vans. We have a head count of two prisoners, no injuries."

"This is Team Leader 4. There was a hidden room on level 2, far southwest corner." A spattering of gunfire from somewhere close to the radio. "Four of the base's security guards are holding out, but after a couple more shots they should be out of ammo."

"There were more than 8 people here," Daniel announced. "Maybe just 8 in security at any time, but 8-10 more scientists. They might have known you were coming."

"Nice work," O'Neill said into the radio. "Lowest level fully secure." He paused, his eyes still on Daniel. He cleared his throat. "We need a tech team to this level. There's a locked room with..." Jack paused. How could he word the orders? "...With one deceased and one in need of medical..." He paused again. "In need of _a blood transfusion_ and you better make it a double. And bring some water, too."

"Copy that," the radio called.

"Teal'c and Fraiser should head down here, too," O'Neill added into the radio.

After a moment of quiet, Janet Fraiser's voice replied. "Of course, General. We'll be down as soon as possible."

"O'Neill out," Jack added into the radio.

There was silence, the soldiers awaiting orders. Obviously there weren't any other people on the basement level.

Jack motioned to the group. "Team 1, take the elevator up. Give Team 4 a hand rounding up the strays."

"Yes, Sir," Team Leader 1 said, walking towards the elevator.

"Yes, Sir," a few of them said at staggered intervals as the group passed.

Jack turned back to Daniel. "So, how have you been?"

Daniel rubbed his bound hands against his face, brushing some hair out of his eyes as he looked around the room. "Y'know," he said very casually. "Locked in here... Every day for the last _eight_ years. Not a lot to do." He paused, unsure if he was ready to hear the answer. "Did you find Sam?"

"Can't you just," Jack asked, waving at his own head. He knew the answer but wanted to soften the blow.

"That machine in the corner blocks everything. You may as well be holograms," Daniel explained. He knew Jack too well to think that was anything but an attempt at a running joke. "When it's off, everything is so loud that I'm not much of a conversationalist." His own heart was pounding so hard he could hear the blood rushing through his ears and see spots forming at the edges of his vision.

"W-What happened to that man?" the man in the gray suit asked Daniel. Based on the reports he didn't technically need to ask, but he wondered the circumstances surrounding the strange scene.

Daniel had forgotten the man was there at all. The man's voice was an unwelcome intrusion. "Who are you?"

The man cleared his throat. "Agent Malcolm Barrett."

"Who are you with?" Daniel continued, his voice taking on an angry tone again.

"When was the last time you saw Harry Maybourne?" Barrett replied.

Daniel glanced at Jack, not answering.

"He's NID," Jack explained.

Daniel was annoyed. They may have been his saviors this time around, but the fact that Barrett was NID meant there was probably something else behind Barrett's motivation.

Barrett walked closer to the glass. "Our current leadership has been working to clean up the bad reputation. As far as we know, this is one of the last rogue groups still operating."

"Can you I trust him?" Daniel asked Jack quickly.

Jack didn't answer at first. He simply shrugged.

Daniel looking to Barrett. "Did you raid a base near Greenbay?"

Barrett was thrown by the question. "Actually, yes. We found a very similar base seven months ago. Why?"

"A couple weeks ago I heard one of Maybourne's people thinking about a base in Greenbay. They needed something sent here from there. It was still operating."

"And Maybourne?" Barrett prompted.

Daniel shook his head. "I haven't seen him in two months. He hasn't been here since before the last..." he trailed off, simply looking towards the man on the floor.

Barrett turned around and headed for the elevator. "I'll ask the prisoners upstairs."

Dr. Bill Lee, Dr. Rodney McKay, and a another technician had finally made it to the basement area with their equipment. When they walked into the room, all three stopped.

"Wait a sec," Rodney started, "aren't you supposed to be dead?" He reconsidered the statement. "I mean _dead_ dead, not just _undead_."

"Aren't you supposed to be somewhere very cold where they don't speak English?" Daniel called back to McKay. Raising his voice left his ears ringing.

McKay dropped his bag of tools on the floor beside the elevator. "_Someone_ woke up on the wrong side of the coffin," he muttered loudly enough for the whole room to hear.

"McKay?" Jack called over his shoulder. "Just get the door open."

McKay looked at Jack, as if you're surprised, and began to ramble. "You're sure? With him still moving around in there? Should we figure out a way to knock him out before those doors open? I, for one, would not want to be..."

Jack turned around, his eyebrows furrowed.

The gesture silenced McKay. "Right! Opening the door," he agreed, turning to face the panel.

"Side note," Daniel began. "Knocking me out can be a very bad idea if I haven't had anything to eat."

McKay looked over, and then rethought making a comment involving the new word _hangry_.

"I hear you're a General now," Daniel said casually. "Are you still with the SGC? Is Hammond?"

"Hammond passed away a few years ago; heart attack. They promoted me to General, but I made a few people in DC nervous with me leadership style." Jack smiled, remembering how he had been mostly successful. "I made them _so _nervous they promoted me to Brigadier General. They even made up a new department at the Pentagon and appointed me the boss." Jack shook his head a little at how absurd his promotions had been. "I'm with _Homeworld _Security. I live in DC. Whoever the current General at the SGC is, they report to me and I can assign personnel from Home_land_ Security as needed when threats from outserspace get too close to the civilian population. Haven't been through the gate in a couple years, now."

"Homeland Security? What are they?" Daniel asked.

Jack showed his surprise for only a moment. Less than a month after the NID supplied footage of Daniel's death, the truth about Maybourn's corruption had been revealed. Daniel's file was reopened, but after a year with no signs that he was alive, Daniel was finally declared dead in early 2001. Daniel never knew about the World Trade center. Jack, unsure of how to explain it, changed the subject. "Just nation-wide security. Doctor Fraiser is in command of SG-1, now. She hung up her stethoscope - mostly- and started going on missions. Teal'c has business off-world a lot of the time, but he still goes on missions when he's in town. McKay is back at the SGC. He came back right after…" he hesitated "…after you and Carter..."

"What happened to Samantha?" Daniel asked again. During his time in this prison few thoughts of the world outside ever drifted in. The short list included the safety of Teal'c and Jack as they continued to go through the Stargate and whether Samantha Carter was in a cell like his somewhere else in the world. He rarely gave any thought to a Gao'uld-triggered apocalypse since, selfishly, at least it would mean an end to his own life.

Jack shook his head. "All the good news got used up when we found you. No one knows where she is. Barrett claims they moved her without authorization and have no idea when it happened or how long she was missing. They didn't even bother faking her death like they did with you." Jack turned around to assure McKay and Dr Lee were actively working on the panel. "They just made her disappear."

"If you're in DC, and no one knew I was here, why did you come personally?" Daniel asked. "I'd think with s job title like yours they wouldn't allow much globetrotting."

"New Mexico isn't much of a globetrot," Jack said with a slight chuckle.

Daniel didn't react to the news.

Jack glanced back at Daniel. "After they faked your death, how long did it take you to figure out you were back stateside?"

"About a week. Knowing I was a 3 hour drive from the SGC never got me any closer to the surface."

"With all the tricks you can do, why didn't you ever escape?" Jack finally asked, still not looking at his friend.

Daniel took a moment to reply and then spoke very slowly, staring at his cuffs. "Every time I failed to escape, they would stop giving me _rations _and put more _people _in here with me."

Jack didn't speak for several minutes, watching McKay, Dr Lee, and their assistant as they prodded inside the panel. "How many people have there been?"

At first, Daniel didn't say anything. "Jack, you used to know me pretty well, maybe better than anyone, but…"

"Forget I asked," Jack interrupted quickly, watching McKay argue quietly with Dr. Lee.

"But," Daniel continued anyway, "after they locked me down here there was nothing I could do to save them, any of them, or save myself."

"Just put it in your report," Jack shouted, silencing his friend and looking back to Daniel at last. They'd finally reached the topic he wanted to address even less than current world events, so he decided to go back to the original subject. He turned around to watch the technicians again. The scientists had stopped arguing and were nervously glancing at Jack, pretending to have not noticed Jack's outburst. "I came because the paper trail here seemed promising. Same _company _has been renting the property for eight and a half years. High electricity bills. Claimed to be medical research, but never any grant money rolling in. This is the third time I've been on-site for a raid of a _rogue _NID base. I thought one of these days I'd find Carter." He glanced back to Daniel with a small smile. "You were a bonus."

"Considering how I've survived all this time, I'm just the booby prize," Daniel said honestly. "I haven't heard anything specifically about Sam for 797 days. Even this far down, I still know when the sun comes up and when it sets, and thanks to these _abilities _I remember every one of them."

"Carter will be as screwed up as you are. I'm not kidding myself about any of this. The body county between the _two _of you is probably pretty high, but both of you got sick on my watch." Jack turned back to give Daniel his full attention. "How are you holding up in there?" he asked. "You probably didn't wake up this morning thinking you'd see me again."

Daniel leaned against the glass, looking up at Jack. "Behold the _Prince of Darkness, _master of the night. That's the sort of thing those old movies said, right?I just keep thinking this is all a nightmare," he admitted. Daniel's eyes scanned the small room where so many horrific things had happened, and so many lives had ended.

Dr. McKay laughed aloud as he worked on the wires. "Boy, I know what you mean. Y'know there were a few days last week when..."

"McKay!" Jack shouted as a reprimand over his shoulder.

McKay became serious. "Right... The door." He leaned in closer to the panel, hooking at another device.

"Dr. Jackson?" Dr. Lee called timidly. After the shouting Jack kept doing at Rodney for his interruptions, he hoped not to get shouted at as well. "Do you know what that device does?" He pointed at the softly humming generator.

"It interferes with my senses. I can't hear or smell anything any better than any of you. If you want to examine it, there's one just like it near the surface," Daniel offered more pleasantly. "I don't think they're connected, but don't touch _either _of them until I have something to eat."

"Sure," Dr. Lee said quickly, not fully understanding the explination but also not wanting to pester anyone. He was curious, but knew he had time to examine it all later. "Whatever you say."

Rodney sighed, straightening up and turning back to Jack. "I need a few more tools from the truck. I hate to admit it, but it could be a little while before we can crack that shield open." He smiled smugly. "This group _obviously _had a few people like _me _working for them."

"If you're anything like the McKay I remember, then you are absolutely right," Daniel shouted towards the others, his ears ringing again.

Dr. Fraiser, a nurse, a paramedic, and Teal'c stepped out of the elevator carrying a backboard, neck brace, body bag, and a bag of medical supplies.

"What did you need General?" Fraiser asked, glancing at the two people in the sealed room, but focusing on the General first for her orders.

Teal'c stopped just two steps outside of the elevator, immediately realizing that the man sitting near Jack's feet on the other side of the glass was the friend he thought was dead. "DanielJackson?" he asked breathlessly, too surprised to say anything else.

"We'll be getting some things from upstairs," Rodney said, feeling ignored. He, Dr Lee, and the assistant all headed up in the elevator.

Janet looked to the glass room quickly.

"Ya see? I told you there was something fishy about that video," Jack called to them, cheerful again.

Janet and Teal'c both went over to the glass cell. Jack had at least seen Daniel once since he'd been transferred to NID custody and had seen Daniel was not being treated well. For Janet and Teal'c, over eight years had passed since they last saw him. Their last memory was of a healthy, clean young man suffering from the psychological stress of his parasitic infection. What they saw in front of them made it hard to believe this was the same person.

Daniel looked up at them, "Hi."

"Are you well?" Teal'c asked.

Daniel gave a half smile. "Things are looking up."

"And him?" Janet asked coolly, nodding towards the man on the floor.

Daniel looked away. He'd be expected to answer that question a few more times before he left that room. He laid his hands in his lap, looking at his irons rather than at the people who used to be the closest thing he had ever had to a family. When they realized how much he had changed, would any of them ever speak to him again? "I..." he started

"Dead two days," Jack interrupted. "We've already been through this a few times, so let's save the details for the briefing room?"

Janet nodded a little, "Yes, Sir."

Teal'c gave a single slight bow to O'Neill and turned back to Daniel and smiled. "I am pleased that you are alive."

This didn't cheer up Daniel as much as Teal'c had hoped. In fact, it had the opposite effect. All Daniel could think about suddenly was how over 200 people had come down that elevator over the years. None of them left this floor alive. He'd killed them with his abilities as part of NID experiments or for food when the NID let him starve. They all would have preferred Daniel died several years earlier. He felt compelled to confess. The three people in front of him were the only three in the world who genuinely cared whether he lived or died, and the only ones whose opinions he valued. "The 211 people I've killed would disagree."

Janet's jaw opened a little in surprise and Teal'c's smile faded. Jack was just angry.

"What part of _briefing room_ and _in your report_ did you not get?" Jack demanded of Daniel.

This was the first time he had said the number out loud to anyone. Daniel's eyes were stinging. He knew he must be crying. "I couldn't let seeing the number on paper or hearing it in a sterile little conference room take away the real damage I've done while locked up in this building." His heart was pounding hard again, seeing black spots every beat. He took a few deep breaths, trying to get his emotions back in control so he didn't blackout.

The medic and the nurse looked uncomfortable. The nurse was stationed at the SGC and she had known Daniel before he got sick. The paramedic was part of Homeland Security, and had only enough security clearance to know about the crimes of the rogue NID, not enough to know what Daniel was really taking about.

Daniel continued more calmly, able to feel the cold moisture on his cheeks. "Some of them died because the NID wanted to test my abilities or my weaknesses, or to punish me for not cooperating. Whatever the reason, I was the garbage disposal they stored in the basement. All of them would have been shot in the head and put into the incinerator, but since I was here, they didn't waste the bullets."

Rodney stepped off of the elevator muttering to himself. He had his toolbag slung crossway over his body. "I sent Lee and what's his name back to the SGC. I can't work with _either_ of themanother minute. Luckily the peace and quiet of the elevator ride gave me an idea about the door."

No one replied, the room still silenced by Daniel's admissions.

"Did I miss something?" Rodney asked, taking a tool from his bag.

Still no answer.

Rodney reached into the panel with the new tool, then pressed a few buttons on the code pad. He directed his voice over his shoulder. "So you say it switches to UV in here when the doors open?"

"Apparently," Jack replied, still annoyed by the spontaneous confession.

"Well, then Dr. Jackson should probably move away from the door," Rodney called.

Daniel got up slowly and moved behind the interior wall. Moving too quickly would just make him dizzy.

"There you are," Rodney said, pressing the last key on the code pad.

The door opened.

Everyone in the room could notice the shift in lighting. The room became a little washed out and overexposed.

Janet glanced to Daniel who was leaning against the wall a few feet inside the door. "Can we come in to get the man?" she asked him.

Daniel nodded, backing towards the bed.

"Gregory?" Janet called, motioning for the paramedic. She and Gregory went into Daniel's room, turning the man over to examine him and evaluate his status. It was true. He was at least two days dead. There was massive trauma to the neck and shoulder. Very little blood remained on the floor or around the wound.

Daniel sat down on the bed. Nobody had commented on the confession, so he changed the subject. "Did you ever make contact with Breck's planet?" he called to Jack.

Janet motioned again, and the nurse came into the room with the gurney and body bag.

Jack shook his head. Back to business. "Nope. We got a couple more dial-ins right after it all hit the fan, but only static. Couple times a year we get the same call. Last one was five or six months ago."

"_I_ theorized it might be a sort of message being sent on a frequency we don't know how to read," Rodney said smugly. Since the door was open and he wasn't supposed to touch the emitter until Janet and her team was out, he decided he may as well be part of the conversation.

"You're right," Daniel said simply.

Rodney smiled proudly, then his smile faded. "How do you know?"

Daniel laughed a little. Argue and he's the victim; agree and it's a trick. "I've had lots of time to think about the books I brought back. One of them talked about human appliances and global entertainment devices. They had diagrams... schematics."

Rodney snapped his fingers excitedly, his mind exhilarated by a new project. "So you think the schematics in that book will be the right translator for that message? Do you know how to reply? Receivers and transmitters? Can you show me the books?"

"Yes, I know how to reply," Daniel said calmly. He was even more grateful for the emitter still being operational. From the body language alone he knew McKay would be hard to tolerate if he could read the man's thoughts. "But I don't have the books anymore. A side effect of having an ability tied to memory is that my memory is almost photographic. Lucky me," he added, looking around at the same four walls he'd seen for thousands of days.

"General? With your permission I'd like to head back to the base and..." Rodney began quickly.

"After we've got these lights back to normal and have the on/off switch for that thing," Jack said, gesturing to the emitter, "then you can head back to the base."

Rodney looked both disappointed and angry. "Yes, Sir," he muttered.

Janet and the medical team had the dead man in a bag, ready to transport.

The medic and Teal'c lifted him and started for the elevator.

Janet put the medical bag over her shoulder, standing but remaining in his room. She sighed, reaching into the bag and pulling out two transfusion kits. She'd expected to give it as an actual transfusion, so a needle and tubes were still connected to the two packages. She started towards Daniel, her heart pounding rapidly. She knew this was still Daniel, but _this_ Daniel had killed so many people. She held out the packages to him.

He took it slowly and carefully, forcing his stiff fingers to grasp onto the packages. "Thank you." The way she was moving told him the whole story: Janet was terrified. The last thing he wanted to do was take the bag so eagerly that she misinterpreted the motion as an assault...

She pulled two bottles of water from her bag and sat them near the door before hurrying to catch up with the medical team. They all stepped into the elevator.

"DanielJackson," Teal'c called from the elevator. "_I_ am pleased you are alive."

The doors closed and they all went towards the surface.

"Shut the door," Jack called to McKay.

"Open the door, shut the door," Rodney complained quietly. He pressed a button on the device he'd brought down on his last trip upstairs. The lights in the room dimmed, but the doors did not close. He jabbed at the button again but nothing happened.

"Well, good job with the lights, but for now we need to keep that door closed," Jack said a little more urgently.

Daniel's hands were shaking as he used his teeth, feet, and stiff fingers to pull one package away from the tubing equipment.

A steady, rhythmic beep began to sound at the device.

"Uh-oh..." McKay muttered.

"That's probably the worse thing anyone can say when they're deep underground at an ultra-secret bad guy's base," Jack complained as he turned to McKay.

McKay jabbed a few more keys. "Not good..." he continued, as if he hadn't heard O'Neill. He let go, taking a step away from the device and looking at O'Neill with terror in his face. "It's booby trapped. We have less than a minute and this panel is going to overload, and by overload I mean explode with more force than about six sticks of dynamite."

Daniel dropped the transfusion equipment and stood in disbelief. Eight years down here and now he, his best friend, and the most neurotic scientist he had ever met were all going to be blown to pieces or crushed to death.

O'Neill grabbed his radio. "O'Neill, code red. All teams! Evacuate the facility immediately," he called into his radio.

"30 seconds!" McKay announced.

"Get in here, _now_," Daniel called, rushing out of the glass room and towards the device. "The walls should keep out the blast."

O'Neill and McKay ran into the glass cell.

"Where's the power source?" Daniel asked quickly.

"I don't know exactly. I bypassed power away from the door lock but didn't try to completely shut down the unit," McKay confessed, cowering on the floor of the cell with his arms over his head, his toolbag on the floor by his feet. "Probably just the device generating it's own power, but they could have rigged something all over the room or all over the whole building."

Daniel touched his hand to the device. In spite if the pain, he out-stretched his hands and tried to trigger his ability. His heart was pounding with such force his vision went completely black with every beat. Pain shot up both of his arms, but the beeping machine began falling through the wall, passing through its alcove as if there were a trap door triggered and was allowing it to fall.

Daniel ran for the entrance to the glass room, but he was so weak that his speed wasn't anything greater than an exhausted human could manage.

The walls of the room erupted around them as Daniel dove into the room. Debris flooded in through the entrance to the cell, slowed only by the interior wall.


	7. Part 7: Homecoming

Part 7: Homecoming

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Half of the cell was filled with rubble, but luckily the shield-like walls had held back the full force of the detonation. McKay and O'Neill had been almost completely protected by the shield. If the door had been closed, the blast wouldn't have effected them in the slightest.

Jack sat up slowly, his ears ringing from the explosion. The first thing he reached for was his radio... but it had fallen off of his vest at some point..

"Daniel," Jack called, coughing from the dust as he pulled the flashlight off his vest and started shining it towards the rocks that had invaded the cell.

McKay sat up and coughed from the dust, shocked that they were still alive and unharmed. He looked up at the walls of the room. There were piles of dirt, rocks, and stray strands of colorful wires pressed against all of the visible walls, but no obvious cracks. "This is spectacular! I can't believe the NID has been keeping this stuff a secret. I mean, we could be using this for..."

"Shut up," Jack said sharply, still scanning the debris for movement or body parts. "Help me look for Daniel."

McKay stopped talking immediately, his eyes catching sight of a dirty foot in the rubble of an area Jack was about to examine. "Over there!" he said quickly, pointing. McKay hoped the foot was still attached to the rest of Daniel.

"Give me a hand," Jack said, propping up his light to dig with both hands.

McKay scrambled up to the pile, shoveling rocks aside.

Within a minute they could see his head. The impact of the blast had spin Daniel a little as he entered the room. He was face down with his feet pointing inside the cell and his head resting in the direction of the elevator. His arms were pinned under his body.

Jack carefully turned Daniel onto his back. His right shoulder and arm were misshapen with deep purple bruising where the rocks had probably landed and broken the bones.

"Careful," McKay reminded fearfully. "He might have a broken back or something. Right," McKay agreed as if it were the most important revelation he had ever had. "Breathing first, broken bones later. Is he still breathing?"

Jack looked at him, perplexed by how strange his best scientist was acting under pressure. "Yes, he's still breathing."

McKay started thinking out loud. "Those parasites will probably repair anything wrong with him. He was pretty weak when we got here. I'm surprised that he made it from one end of the cell to the other on his own, let alone all the way to the door as fast as he did. Do you think he'll be ok?"

Jack looked back towards the cot. "Grab his feet. Let's get him into the bed."

"Now we're going to have a bloodthirsty monster on our side of the room," he muttered

Jack lifted Daniel from under the shoulders and he and McKay laid him down on the rickety little bed.

"That blood Fraiser brought down," Jack began. "Have you seen it?"

They both scanned the floor.  
McKay bent down and picked both packages up. "Got them. And there are tubes and needles."

Jack gestured at Daniel. "This _bloodthirsty monster_ just saved your life. If we set up the transfusion hopefully he won't try to _eat_ us when he wakes up."

McKay held out the packages and tubing towards Jack.

Jack didn't take it.

"Hey, it's not like I'm not grateful, but I haven't had medical field training in at least a year," McKay clarified. "Asking me to hit a vein right now would be like asking Dr Lee to dance for the Russian Ballet. "

"Fine." Jack took the packages. "Use your flashlights and start looking for the radio." He pointed towards the left wall. "We came in on that side so hopefully we find it in one piece."

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Daniel opened his eyes, jolted awake by the realization that the emitter had stopped working. His bed squeaked when he moved.

"Hey," Jack said from the floor near the rubble. He and McKay were sitting as far from Daniel as this small room would allow. "You've been out a long time. How's your head?"

The power running through the walls left a pale blue glow to the room, just enough light for the humans to see most shapes and for Daniel to see everything with a blue tint.

"What happened?" Daniel asked urgently. The moments leading to the explosion were a little fuzzy. He closed his eyes and took a slow, deep breath, trying to get his instincts under control. It had been years since he'd been in a room with normal people he wasn't required to kill. As soon as he asked the question he heard both men recall the events in their own minds.

"Booby trap. It might have been worse if you hadn't gotten to the device first," Jack admitted calmly. "And good thinking about the room."

"I don't think it could have gotten any worse, but we're probably going to suffocate anyway," McKay added quietly. He turned on the flashlight, aiming it at Daniel for only a moment.

Daniel's eyes reflected the light back, but it felt like an ice pick had been pushed through his head. He turned away, blinded and annoyed.

McKay let out a squeal of fright and aimed the beam back to the floor.

Daniel blinked several times until his vision cleared. He surveyed what was left of his room, and then noticed the half-empty unit of blood with which he was being transfused and the empty package on the floor. He pilled the needle and tubing from his arm with his mouth, took the bag in his hands and began drinking directly from the package. The shackles were still limiting his dexterity. Eating something else was the best way of keeping McKay and Jack alive.

McKay made a gagging sound.

Jack simply looked away, waiting for the process to stop.

Daniel finished the bag and dropped it behind the bed. He needed more, so being trapped in a room with the two people he wouldn't dream of killing or infecting was leaving him on the verge of a panic attack. "Do you have your radio?" Before he finished asking he already knew the answer. Having two people in the room with him was deafening.

"Can't you just..." Jack made a wiggling motion with his fingers near his head and up to the ceiling "... and let them know we're still alive?"

Daniel sighed. "Too far and I think the emitter on the main floor is still running." He looked at the ceiling. "The one down here was crushed, so I'm getting caught up pretty quick about everything I missed. I never learned a way to turn it" he gestured at his head, "off."

"The radio was crushed." Jack answered.

"They'll still try to look for us," McKay lied to himself, panic in his voice.

Jack looked at McKay as of McKay were crazy, which Jack didn't doubt. "We're what, 70 'er 80 feet down? Even if they knew we were here I don't really see things working out in our favor."

"Do you have any tools with you?" Daniel asked McKay. He didn't need to ask but he was trying very hard to block the chatter. McKay was having a panic attack, and this was making Daniel anxious, too.

McKay nodded. He lifted his bag a little to show he still had the whole bag he'd arrived with.

Daniel put his feet on the floor and stood. There wasn't a part of him that didn't hurt, especially his shoulder and his head.

"Take it easy," Jack said, standing. "What'd ya need?"

Daniel wobbled and sat back down. He held out his arms towards McKay. "I need you to remove these."

McKay picked up his bag, stood, but didn't move. "Is it safe for me to .. Um.. You're not going to bite me, are you?" He was hugging the bag.

"It's hard for me to focus," Daniel admitted. He shook his head at an awkward angle, and closed his eyes tightly for just a moment. "It would help me a lot if you quit thinking about how many different ways there are for me to kill you."

"Not exactly a glowing endorsement," Jack said to Daniel.

"Can I show you how this works?" Daniel asked McKay.

McKay was still hugging the bag. He looked at the shackles and back at Daniel. "I guess."

Daniel mentally relayed all he remembered about where the power source was, how to get to the wires, where the bolt was attached, the giant washers to prevent him from pulling free… then the memory of pain and blood as they threaded the bold between the bones of his forearms… He stopped.

McKay was hugging his bag and shaking, not saying anything, staring at Daniel.

"Sorry," Daniel said. "I'm a little out of practice."

Jack was still standing. He waved a hand in front of McKay's face.

McKay made a whimpering sound. "W-What?" he asked towards Daniel.

Jack looked back at Daniel. "You broke our scientist. We don't have a spare and you broke him."

Daniel pushed the hair out of his face, looking at the floor in defeat. "It just got so jumbled." McKay's panic was replaced with shock and confusion. At least it was a little quieter for a minute.

"What?" McKay asked again, this time directing the question at Jack.

Jack pulled the workbag away from McKay and the flashlight, walking over to Daniel. "Use words."

Daniel nodded a little. "Small, flathead screwdriver. Wire cutters. Two crescent wrenches. Any size pliers."

Jack started digging in the bag, laying each tool next to him as he located it.

McKay sat down, still in shock. He looked at his own forearms, then folded his arms and drew up his knees to his chest. For a split second he had seen his arms stretched out in front of him as the iron was fitted around them. Then felt the exact moment when the blunt bolts tore through his skin andhe couldn't stop thinking about the grinding sensation of metal scraping against the bone.

Jack shown the light on the metal. "Where do I start?"

"Both sides have a little hatch," Daniel explained, showing both sides of the gauntlets. "Pry off the covers."

Jack held the small flashlight with his teeth and started to scrape at the crease. His eyes glanced up at Daniel. Daniel's eyes were closed and his breathing was a little uneven. _Staying with me? _Jack thought as clearly as he could.

Daniel nodded and opened his eyes. "I'm not around people much anymore." Being so close to Jack was pulling at every instinct he had failed to conquer for the last eight years. His injuries were feeling better by the second, but his thirst was returning just as quickly.

Jack popped the first panel off.

"You see the head of the bolt? There's a bunch of wires wrapped around it. Cut them all."

Jack snipped the wires.

Daniel turned his hands over to access the other side. "Same this side."

Jack started scraping again on the other panel, the flashlight still in his teeth. _They ever look into why I didn't get infected?_

Daniel shook his head. "I don't think they cared."

_I remember Frasier said something weird about that; didn't get a chance to tell you since we already thought you were dead_. Jack snipped the wires wrapped around the nut. He took the light out of his mouth. "You remember that stuff about the Ancients and their genetic marker? The ancients had a genetic trait that allowed them to use their technology. Some people these days still have the gene. We were in a time crunch to use their tech to , you know, _save the world_ so the whole base was tested for the marker. Only a couple people had the gene. Fraiser checked and Sam didn't and neither did you. At first Fraiser thought it might have been the Gao'uld protein marker that made me any different, but Sam and I both had that when she was infected."

Daniel laughed a little, the first time in a long time. "You _finally_ remembered everything a doctor said to you."

Jack looked serious. "You were my best friend and I thought you were dead. Carter is still out there, so those things have been sticking with me a little better than they used to."

Daniel nodded again, looking back to the gauntlets. "Hold onto the head of the bolt on this side with one wrench and twist the nut off on the other. There will be some blood so use the tools."

Jack put the light back into his mouth and did as he was told.

Every turn sent a fresh stab of pain through both arms. His teeth were clenched. The pain was motivating the parasite to take action.

The nut fell to the floor.

Daniel took another ragged breath. "Use the pliers to pulled the washer away."

Jack slid the washer away, horrified to see the end of the bolt sticking out of his friend's forearm. The wound was so fresh it looked like it had just happened a few minutes ago; something he would see in an emergency room or as a result of this cave-in, not an existing injury.

"H-Hold the head of the other washer with the pliers," Daniel sputtered. "I'm going to pull my hands away from it."

Jack clamped the pliers around the washer below the head of the bolt, holding the grip with both hands. _Ready _"Rea-ee." Jack thought and mumbled at the same time.

Daniel pulled his arms away from Jack, leaving the pliers holding the bloody bolt and the second washer.

McKay was staring at the others, still in some form of shock.

Daniel grunted in pain as he separated his wrists, and tried to use his stiff fingers to pull the remaining metal off his arms.

Jack dropped the bolt and tossed down the pliers. He reached for Daniel's hands to help slide the final pieces off, but Daniel pulled away, walking all the way to the back wall.

"Too much blood. Don't want to press your luck," Daniel said simply, his voice still pained. "I just need a minute." Daniel was flexing his fingers, trying to wake up the circulation.

Jack took the flashlight out of his mouth and sat down next to McKay. The color in Daniel's shoulder had returned to the normal pale shade- he could see it through the torn fabric. As he watched Daniel flex his hands the blackish stain faded, too. With each movement his joints bent more smoothly.

Daniel slid each of the remaining metal sheaths off his hands as he walked back to the bed. He pulled one of the sheets away from the bed and started to wipe away the blood from his forearms. His fingers were still stiff, but the places the bolts had been were just pink scars.

"Better?" Jack asked.

Daniel nodded, his eyes falling on McKay. "You ok?"

McKay shook his head a little, still staring a Daniel. "T-That was a little- a little too much."

"What did you actually do to him?" Jack asked.

Daniel shook his head a little. "Breck warned me once that math and languages are easy to," he gestured from his head towards Jack, "It's all just facts." He pushed the hair out of his face, this time able to use a single hand to push the hair behind on ear. "I've never seen a schematic for that device so I showed him what I knew. I haven't done this in a while and when I was relaying how to remove it then the way they were _instilled_ slipped through too."

"So much pain," McKay muttered. "They've been doing that sort of stuff to you for years, haven't they?"

Daniel didn't answer the question. "Rodney, I'm sorry you experienced that."

McKay nodded a little. "You, too," he whispered, finally looking away from Daniel.

"How long did they have those things on you?" Jack asked. "It looked pretty _fresh_."

"A month." Daniel flexed his fingers again, rolling his wrists to check the range of motion. His wrists cracked and ground at the joint as they moved for the first time since the bolt was inserted. "They electrified the bolt and it kept the parasites from making it heal. They think that's what did it, anyway, but it might have just been the pain and restricted blood flow." Daniel walked towards the rubble at the entrance and held his hand out towards the elevator. He closed his eyes and moved his hand a little, palm forward, like he was warming his hand by a fire. "The elevator shaft isn't fully caved in. Thirty feet foreword, twenty or so feet up… there's a big air pocket. I can get us there, then make a push for the surface." He opened his eyes again and walked back to the cot.

"Do I even wanna know?' Jack asked.

McKay was staring at Daniel again.

"I can tell when solid things aren't solid," Daniel tried to explain. "Would be helpful if I was still working at archaeological sites." He swept his hand above him, and then towards the ceiling throughout the room. "There's a small break in the glass over there." He pointed above the cot. "We need to move before it gives out."

"And you've tried this before?" Jack asked, a nervous tone to his voice for the first time all day. "I mean, actually walking all the way from one end of something solid to the other? Last time I saw you it was just walking through walls between rooms or falling through floors."

"And have you ever taken anyone with you before?" McKay asked.

"It's a plan," Daniel said with clenched teeth, his temper finally getting the better of him. "Come up with another one before we run out of air." It had been a long time since he'd had to cooperate with anyone. He'd been in that room mostly by himself for far too long. He forced himself to take a more pleasant tone. "I have brought two people with me before, but never this far. That's why we need to stop in the elevator shaft."

"I'm ready to go when you are," Jack said more cheerfully, standing up again.

McKay stood, too, still too frozen by his fear to ask anything else or warn about potential the dangers.

"Stand on either side of me," Daniel instructed.

Jack and McKay positioned themselves, all three now facing the rubble.

Daniel grabbed each of them tightly around the upper arm. "Don't try to move around too much." For just a moment his instincts flared and his grip tightened beyond what was necessary. His mouth was dry and he could feel their pulse through their shirts.

"How much is too much?" McKay asked almost too quietly for Jack to hear.

"Just don't try to talk," Daniel added with a glance at McKay. "It will feel like I'm dragging you though deep water or sand. You won't be able to breathe, but I'll get us though as fast as I can."

McKay took a few deep breaths, as if preparing for a swim, and then gave a nervous nod.

Daniel stepped towards the wall first, pulling Jack and McKay into the wall after him. They all disappeared.

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Daniel's torso emerged into the opening first.

The space was small, about 6ft by 6ft with a low ceiling.

Daniel took a few more steps and pulled both Jack and McKay into the empty space. He let go of them as quickly as he could and doubled over stumbled to the floor.

Jack and McKay both coughed a few times, panting and taking deep breaths.

Jack reached into his jacket and pulled out the flashlight. "Watch your head," he warned McKay.

McKay nodded and learned away from the pieces of rebar protruding from the ceiling.

"Danny, how you holding up?" Jack shined his light on his friend.

Daniel was sitting on the floor. Staring up at them intensely, not blinking.

"Still with us?" Jack asked nervously.

Daniel could barely hear anything aside from the beating of Jack and McKay's hearts. He shook his head a little, trying to make the feelings recede. He felt like he was starving again and every part of him wanted to grab onto one of his friends and just start drinking. "I need something to drink or I won't be able to get us to the surface," he struggled to say.

Jack's vest had several pockets, and started to pat a few of them and finally found what he was looking for. He removed a nearly empty water flask and his knife. He uncapped the flask and pulled out the blade, poised to cut his hand.

"Jack, wait," Daniel said quickly, holding out his hand for urgency. It took all of his strength to force himself to stop Jack. Every part of him was eager for spilt blood.

Jack stopped. "What? If I put it in the flask you won't use your teeth. No teeth, no parasite."

Daniel smiled very weakly, proud of his friend again proving that he cared enough to remember the details written in a report. "Good idea, but if you have an immunity the way the Jaffa did, you remember what happened when I drank his blood?"

Jack nodded. "Epic food poisoning."

"And if your blood is some sort of cure this would be the worst time ever to turn me back into a normal person." Daniel held out his hand above him, sensing where the next gap or air pocket might be. "If I get cured now we'll suffocate in about an hour." A pain shot through his head. He pulled his hand away quickly and put it to his forehead, eyes closed. "Or we'll be crushed," he added. The pain lingered, but not as badly. If he tapped into another active ability before getting something to drink, his friends would never make it back home.

Jack looked over at McKay.

"Me?" he asked very quietly. "B-But I don't handle pain very well. I can't just cut myself open the way you soldiers keep doing."

"Hold the canteen for a minute, and I'll do the rest," Jack offered.

Daniel clenched his fists, rocking slightly as he started to get back to his feet.

"Danny?" Jack asked. "Just give us a minute. Try thinking about something else. Pick my brain. There's probably something more interesting in there that what I'm doing now."

"When we get back to the base, remind me to share this memory with you and you'll never try to give me that advice again," Daniel laughed a little, still watching them. "This is another reason why I haven't tried to escape in the last two years," he added more softly. He was leaning against the wall using all his willpower to not close the gap between them.

McKay took the flask and offered Jack his hand.

Jack ran the blade fast across McKay's palm and lined up the cut with the flask.

Daniel rushed towards his friends, but stopped just inches away from McKay's hand.

McKay give a whimper and closed his eyes, but he didn't move.

Daniel was finally able to hear a full, coherent narrative inside McKay's head. Of all the odd times for it to have changed focus, he wasn't obsessing over Daniel's ability to do him harm. Rodney was thinking remorsefully about his estranged sister and the niece - or was it a nephew? - he was never going to meet. He had no doubt that the child would be as smart and talented as his sister, and this moment was the first time since he found out about the child that he _genuinely _thought he'd never get to meet whoever that child grew up to be.

Jack grabbed the flask and kept it aligned with McKay's hand as if nothing unusual were happening.

Daniel inched away, forcing himself to keep his distance. It had been years since he had had to control himself like this. His hands were shaking, but he managed to turn his back on the scene.

The blood had slowed to a droplet every few seconds but the flask already had several tablespoons added to the water.

Daniel was breathing more normally, and not shaking anymore. He'd been keeping his eyes shut and did as Jack suggested. He was exploring Jack's memories of reading very dry mission reports of routine SG-6 and SG-11 surveying or agricultural assignments. They were interesting enough to Daniel to hold his attention, but Jack's level of boredom during the time he was reading it kept Daniel from getting too stimulated.

Jack didn't want to make a fresh cut, so he held out the flask for Daniel. "Danny."

Daniel turned quickly, grabbed the flask and drained the mixture of water and blood in just a few swallows.

Jack closed his knife and put it back in the right pocket. He slapped against another pocket and pulled out a paper-covered square of sterile gauze. He tore open the package and pressed the gauze against McKay's palm.

"Is it over?" McKay asked, opening only one eye.

"Keep pressure on it," Jack said, grabbing McKay's unharmed hand and pressing it against the gauze. He looked back at Daniel. "Ready to keep going?"

Daniel was licking at the opening of the flask but stopped as if caught doing something unacceptable. He dropped the flask onto the rubble. "I'm not going to stop until I get both of you to the surface."

Daniel could feel his face starting to burn as soon as his head broke the surface. He flinched and squinted to keep his eyes open in spite of the blinding light as he continued to rise. It had been more than a minute since they'd entered the wall and if he stopped now McKay and Jack might pass out from lack of air.

One of the nurses let out a scream, and a group of soldiers looked over in disbelief.

Daniel landed in a kneeling position, solidly on the ground with his arms still extended into the rock and rubble. His skin was steaming. They had appeared in the shade of a decorative parking-lot tree, but it wasn't dark enough for his skin. With one last burst of strength he pulled them both onto solid ground.

Jack and McKay were coughing badly as Daniel released them.

Daniel could barely see. He could tell it wasn't in direct sunlight, but his skin was still burning. Holding up a hand to shield his eyes, he looked around for some shade.

Apparently he hadn't made a very straight line to the surface because he was kneeling on solid pavement outside of the building. There was a set of metal stairs leading up to what was left of a warehouse's doors with some wooden planks hiding the empty space under the stairway to keep homeless and stray animals out.

Daniel scrambled towards the boards, tore one plank away and slipped into the shade.

"General?" Dr Fraiser shouted as she ran for the pair on the ground. "Are you ok?"

Daniel felt like he was in the middle of a war zone. Despite the pain he was still in and the confusing din of sounds from around the building, he was still appreciative of his proximity to a working emitter. He was hungry and tired and if not for the emitter there were a dozen people he could easily overpower.

Jack cleared his throat a few times before breathing normally as Fraiser started to check his pulse.

"I'm fine, too, thanks," McKay snapped sarcastically, still coughing and grasping hard to the gauze to his hand

Another medic came over to Rodney.

"I feel fine. Where's Daniel?" Jack asked, looking around as he got to his feet.

"You might be fine but I still have sand in my lungs," McKay complained, with another dramatic cough.

"His lungs sound clear," the paramedic told the group quietly.

Daniel's hands were shaking, again. That's the farthest he'd ever traveled with even one person in tow, and on top of that his skin looked charred in places and red all over from too much exposure to daylight. "I'm under here," he called to Janet. "T-Toss me a p-package..." His heart was pounding so fast he was starting to feel dizzy. He struggled to make his eyes focus. If he passed out due to hunger, the parasite would take full control and he couldn't risk harming any more people now that he was away from NID experiments. He was determined to never be in a position to harm someone again.

"Got it," Janet called, digging into her bag as she approached the staircase. She crouched down by the broken boards and held the bag into the darkness.

Daniel licked his lips. He needed blood and he could almost smell the warm liquid running through her wrist. He quickly grabbed the bag from her hand and recoiled back into the alcove. "I need a little space."

"Are you feeling alright?" Janet asked, still at the entrance.

"Peachy," he lied, puncturing the corner of the bag just enough to drink from it.

"I mean it," Janet said quickly.

Daniel had finished half of the bag and stopped drinking, considering an honest answer. "You've already given me the only thing that will help. Go take care of Jack and McKay."

"Are you sure?" Janet continued.

Daniel started drinking from the package again, hoping that silence would give her the message.

"Daniel?" Janet asked urgently, concerned he might have passed out or something.

"I'll be fine," Daniel said slowly, his teeth clenched. His hands weren't shaking the way they had been and his skin wasn't stinging quite as much. "Are _they _going to be ok? I haven't had to go that far before with people."

"McKay's still being _McKay_ but they both seem healthy," Janet reported warmly. "What happened down there? We just stepped off the elevator, the General was on the radio, and we got out the front door when we started to feel the ground shaking. Two teams and a couple of the NID prisoners are still unaccounted for. It's all so unstable that we haven't been allowed to start digging for them yet."

"There was a trap," Daniel said simply. "I made McKay and Jack get into the cell while I tried to disconnect the device that started the countdown. It didn't make a difference. The walls were strong enough to protect them. They dug me out and I got them to the surface."

"So they're alive thanks to you," Janet stated more than asked.

"If I hadn't brought them back up here, they would have suffocated or I would have killed them myself," Daniel simplified harshly.

Janet seemed surprised. She stood, turned to walk away, and paused, turning around again to add another thought. "I can only imagine what they've put you through over the last eight years, but today you did something good."

"I'm not the person I used to be." He moved as close to the opening as he could manage without being burned again.

The ground rumbled suddenly, like a dump truck had just emptied its load inside the building. Some of the taller pieces of the building that had been left teetering from the first explosion were wobbling and beginning to fall towards the ground.

Daniel knew it must have been the shielded room collapsing because at this same moment the last emitter was destroyed. He instantly felt a unified focus on Janet from the minds of the people in the crowd. The wall was on its way down on top of her, as well as himself, but only a few people in the crowd even knew he was there…

Janet started to open her mouth to warn Daniel when Daniel ran out of the hiding space and wrapped his arms around her.

The wall crashed to the ground leaving a deep pile of debris and sending a cloud of dust into the sky and onto the crowd.

The crowd was silent.

Jack pushed the nurses away and he, Teal'c and a few of the SGC soldiers ran towards the mess. They started to pull at the bricks above the spot where Janet and Daniel had been standing.

The dust hung in the air as minutes passed and more of the stones were moved away.

Jack suddenly saw one of the rocks moving in an area a little farther from the building than he'd last seen his friends. Daniel's sharp-nailed hand came up from under the rocks, passing through the stones like the ground was just a hologram. Jack grabbed onto his friend's hand, pulling him upwards.

Daniel was still holding Janet, but she wasn't moving. Finally, both on solid ground, he pulled his hand away from Jack, laid her on her back and knelt beside her. His hands were shaking again, but at least the dust in the air was keeping his skin from burning in the light. "She needs CPR. We were under ground too long."

A paramedic bent over Janet, tilting her head back and breathing two puffs of air into her lungs. He'd only given her two chest compressions when she started to cough, opening her eyes.

Janet had been holding her breath for so long, but then when she tried to breathe no air would come in. She was wheezing, still laying on her back. She grabbed onto Daniel's hand tightly. "Thank you," she whispered, unable to find her full voice.

Daniel flinched when she touched him. He allowed her the moment but then pulled his hand away from hers. Now that they were on the surface again the thoughts of the observers were far less unified and he was feeling as weak as he had when he'd brought Jack and McKay to the surface.

"What took you so long?" Jack asked seriously.

Daniel's eyes wandered towards the crowd.

They were all starring at him, wanting an explanation for what they had twice seen him do.

Daniel looked back to Jack and Janet. "We started to fall then I got turned around. I started to hear everyone again and I went towards the sound…" That was about as simply as he could explain what had happened.

Jack helped Janet to her feet.

Daniel tried to stand, but lost his balance and fell back onto one knee.

"We should get you back to the SGC," Janet told him, her voice back to full strength. She offered him her hand to help him up.

The dust was beginning to settle. He tried to look up at her to answer but he flinched and looked away as the light started to sting his eyes. "I shouldn't…" If he touched her he was sure he would hurt her. It felt like some had given him too many caffeine pills. His hands were shaking more badly and he was on edge around all the people so close by. He tried again to get his footing and this time he was able to slowly stand up straight.

Janet led him quickly to the nearest ambulance. "Give us a minute, please," she said to the paramedic by the door. "We will be using some of the blood supply."

The medic nodded and opened the door for them.

Daniel followed her inside and the medic closed the door. The tight space was making his cravings even worse, but the dim lighting of the ambulance was a welcome change.

Janet opened up the refrigeration and found a package of O Negative. She rummaged a bit more on the shelves and found a bottle of water, offering them both to Daniel.

Daniel took the items from her slowly. The fear he had seen in her before the building collapsed was gone, replaced by her usual warm bedside manor. He drank from the bottled water first. "Can you find me a jacket with a hood and some heavy gloves? And maybe some boots?" Near the building, like bacons of light in a dark place, he could still hear the intense, terrified thoughts of the living people trapped in the rubble. A few beacons faded in just the short time between Janet's recovery and their entry into the ambulance, but others were still there. He also wanted Janet to leave him alone, for her own safety. His mind was so foggy that once he punctured the package of blood he wasn't sure if that chilly liquid would be enough to satisfy his thirst.

Some of her levity waned. Janet looked at him, trying to hide her disappointment and doubt. "Planning on making a run for it?"

Daniel shook his head quickly and finished the water. "I can hear at least ten people who are sill buried. I want to find them before it's too late."

"Even with everything that's happened…" Janet didn't finish her sentence. She was beaming at him, displaying the warmest smile Daniel had seen in all his eight years on this secret base. "I'll be right back." She opened the door and left, shutting it again behind her.

Daniel sighed to himself, looking at the package of blood. This was the first time he had been alone all morning. Really, though, it was the first private moment he had had in the last eight years. No cameras were watching or scientists waiting to monitor why he behaved in a certain way under certain conditions… No condemned prisoner was locked in the room with him…

Jack was outside, concerned and curious, but at last the other voices outside were finally turning into white noise.

Being part of the rescue team meant he would finally be able to use his abilities to do some good, but it also meant his long morning was going to turn into a very long, hot day and require several more bags of blood in order to save everyone that was still buried. He brought the package up to his mouth and used one sharpened tooth to tare a jagged opening.

The package was half empty before he realized he'd started drinking.

He paused for just a moment to reflect, forcing himself to break the trance this beverage had put just him in. This was another behavior he couldn't allow himself to continue. When he got back to the SGC, he'd insist on traditional blood transfusions. If he kelp allowing himself the instant fix of drinking the blood, his whole focus in life would continue to be finding someone or something to drink from. Janet was outside of the ambulance, so he finished the bag quickly and put the empty package in the biohazard disposal bin.

Janet knocked and came in before receiving an answer, holding an armload of clothing. "They have a canopy, too, to help with the sunlight. We can move it wherever you need to go."

"Can I have another drink?" Daniel asked, pointing towards the refrigerator.

"Help yourself. We'll be outside, and if you need a break you can come back in here." She dropped the clothing beside him and left again.

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"To minimize his prolonged proximity to base personnel, we have a room setup on the outer edge of level 19," Major General Henry Landry began. "They're rigging the plumbing in the sink and shower with a fifteen minute UV wastewater purification before being sent through the usual sanitation protocols. It's already one of the quarantine rooms, so maybe the reinforced walls will cut down on base noise for him. And, before you say anything, I know he can walk though walls and that he isn't a prisoner, so we are removing the locking mechanism from the doors. We should have it move-in ready in about an hour. You're _positive _you want to transport the legendary Dr. Daniel Jackson - who isn't actually dead - back to the SGC even though he's murdered people while he was held by the NID?"

Landry had been commander of the SGC for three years already, and had only known Dr. Jackson due to numerous reports citing humanitarian efforts and the final report about his death while in NID custody. The details he had been given throughout the day had been conflicting. The new reports simultaneously cited Daniel as being the primary cause of numerous deaths, but later there were reports of his selflessly helping trapped people get out of a collapsed building.

The Colonel O'Neill had invited Teal to his meeting with General Landry.

"Yes," Teal'c answered before Jack could.

"More _executed_ than _murdered_," Jack said, hoping semantics would help the General get on board. "What else are we going to do to him? We still can't dial the planet where this all started, so should be just kill him? Or keep him locked up down in that same kind of cell the NID designed for him the rest of his very _long_ life? He pulled eleven people out of the ground this morning, not even counting me, McKay, _and _Fraiser. A few people didn't make it, but when he got them out, they were still breathing. We owe him another chance for that and for ever believing a word the NID said about him being dead. We dropped the ball but we have another chance."

"It is possible that the people from the vampire planet were responsible for the encoded messages that arrived thought the Stargate in the first weeks after DanielJackson's incarceration," Teal'c continued. "As well as some of the messages of unknown origin that we have received over the last eight years. He suggested a device that will translate these messages."

Jack held up his finger. "That's right! We need him back here to build the… whatever it is he needs to build."

"Can't Dr. McKay build the device without Jackson's help?" Landry suggested.

Jack hesitated.

"It is unlikely," Teal'c said definitively. "The documents detailing the translation device have been buried, or are still in possession of the rogue NID, but due to his ability to recollect and share memories it is likely that DanielJackson's assistance will be required." He paused, thinking. "Additionally, allowing DanielJackson to acclimate to the dense population of the SGC, prior to needing his assistance, may reduce the likelihood of unfavorable insolents during times when his cooperation is critically required."

Jack nodded, and decided to simplify. "He's pretty jumpy about loosing that emitter technology. The rogue NID we have in custody won't say anything about the stuff they were working on down there. With time, and Daniel nearby, we could get some real answers."

"Do you really believe it's safe for him to be around people?" Landry asked.

"Of course," Jack said automatically. "Well..." He actually thought about the answer this time. "Eventually. If we let him go to the infirmary a couple times a day for a transfusion, he'll probably be fine."

Landry laughed a little. "Probably? And how likely do you think it is that he'll stay on this base? He broke out of here once and that was before the strain put on him by the NID."

"I believe he will comply with your orders," Teal'c answered.

"Besides, before the NID faked his death everyone was willing to let him come back here," Jack pointed out.

Landry thought a little, then nodded. "If he can't adjust to living here again, we might need to consider other arrangements, but I've read a lot of positive things about him. It will be a pleasure to finally meet him."

"I'm happy you're committed," Jack said diplomatically. "He'll be down here in a few minutes. He's with Fraiser and McKay on the surface."

"Excuse me?" Landry asked in surprise.

"We couldn't exactly leave him where we found him," Jack argued.

Landry sighed heavily, frustrated by his commander's leadership style.

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Daniel was leaning against the bumper of one of the canvas-covered trucks with his arms folded. His eyes were focused on the bright world at the end of the tunnel. He blinked a few times and rubbed his eyes, the outline of the tunnel still burned into his eyelids. The sun would be up for at least two more hours.

"How are you feeling?" Janet asked from behind him.

They had finished finding everyone trapped in the ruble by 1 pm, and by 1:30 pm they were on their way here in the back of an ambulance as part of a military caravan. Janet and a paramedic named Lisa had ridden with him in the back of the ambulance. They'd kept him supplied with both a saline and a blood IV. This was a prudent approach to curbing his appetite in transit, but also served as a crash course in ignoring his instincts in preparation for the close confinement at the SGC.

While on the road, he had been allowed to change into a clean set of scrubs. All of the cloths he had been wearing were bagged up for either decontamination or incineration. The ambulance had an electric razor and both Janet and the paramedic helped cut his hair, briefly sharing a laugh with Daniel as they tried to make it _stylish_. The discarded hair and the razor were both bagged for disposal. The last thing Daniel was waiting for was a shower.

Daniel was also getting a little better at closing out the noise from the minds around him, but anyone within twenty feet was still like a radio he couldn't shut off. Janet's mind was running though the treatments she was hoping to use on his blood samples once they got downstairs and McKay was wondering what was being served in the cafeteria this week. There were also six airmen within range who had a jumble of random thoughts related to duty and family simultaneously. Lisa and her ambulance had left to be cleaned and restocked.

"It's kinda loud up here," Daniel admitted, opening his eyes again to glance back at her. "But it will be even worse down there."

"After being in that tomb for eight years, a monastery would seem loud," McKay said, chewing nervously on the edge of a hangnail as he leaned against the opposite side of the same truck's bumper as Daniel. "But all those people at monasteries do is think, right? So maybe a monastery _would _be loud for someone who can read minds." He nibbled more on the hangnail. "Do you think Landry is going to sign off on this?"

McKay really meant that he didn't want to spend any more time with Daniel. "I don't know," Daniel answered calmly. "Jack outranks him, so I think he doesn't have a choice. I hope Jack's right." He'd gotten used to people thinking the worst of him. They weren't wrong, so having support from friends like Jack, Teal'c and Janet was something to get used to again. "You can go down to your office any time. You don't need to stay up here with me."

McKay realized his mind must have floated back to his fear of Daniel. During the trip back he had been sent the preliminary report about the operation in preparation for the debriefing. The report included some of what Daniel confessed before the booby trap was triggered. "I-I don't put much stock in psychology," he admitted suddenly. "You saved my life. I'm truly grateful for that, so you can't hold a person's passing notions against…"

Daniel turned towards McKay quickly, his stare alone silencing McKay's rant. "The _passing notion_ is that I'm still a good person. Everything else is _persistent_," Daniel said very quietly, his tone matter-of-fact. "You even keep going back to the question of _what powers would I have if I got infected_, and then, like clockwork, you remember the what I accidentally showed you during the cave-in. You realize the price of those powers and you start thinking of all the different ways I could kill you because being killed would be better than being infected. The same loop over and over. If you don't drop it, some part of that might become a self-fulfilling prophecy."

McKay was scared frozen, his eyes wide. "I'll be in my office!" He jumped up and ran for the elevator as fast as he could.

The elevator opened as McKay arrived. O'Neill and Teal'c started to step out and were almost knocked down by him.

"Sorry, Sir!" McKay said quickly in a high voice as he began repeatedly punching the button until the doors finally closed.

Jack and Teal'c walked out towards Janet and Daniel.

"That guy is disturbed enough without you pushing his buttons," Jack scolded.

"It's probably better for everyone if he stays away from me," Daniel explained. "He dosen't understand subtle and doesn't trust kind. Threatening him is almost the only way of getting a message to stick."

"Ready to head back home?" Jack asked, gesturing towards the entry. "We couldn't give you your old room back, or your lab space, and it might be a week before we get your stuff out of storage… But home is where the Stargate is, am I right?"

Daniel rubbed his eyes again, and the bridge of his nose, as if nursing a headache. Eight years without eye glasses and he found the gesture still helped him relax. Jack was somewhere in the range of 90% sure he had made the right decision. He opened his eyes again and tried to hide his own concern with as much of a smile as he could muster. "Teal'c, whenever you're free would you mind giving me a refresher on the Jaffa Mediation techniques? I've had plenty of time on my own to think about…" Daniel paused "…pretty much everything I've every wanted time to think about, but right now a structured approach might be more helpful."

Teal'c was visible happy. He gave a small bow. "It would be my pleasure. I am not scheduled to go off world again for two days. After you have rested I would welcome your company."

This time Daniel didn't need to strain to show a smile.


	8. Part 8: Uninvited

Part 8: Uninvited

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Daniel was laying on a bed in the far corner of the infirmary, waiting for his permanent housing to be finished. His eyes were closed and at some point he had started to drift off to sleep in spite of all the noise and people near him. This day had been busier than any he had experienced in at least five years and he was exhausted.

The dream he was having was strange. In this dream, he was still laying in the bed. The infirmary was crowded with soldiers, standing in a long orderly row leading out the door as if waiting to be inspected. The human part of these soldiers, the clothing and faces, faded, replaced by vaguely human-shaped forms with home-movies being projected on them. Each person's movie featured their own unique cast doing different things.

The soldier nearest Daniel had a movie playing on his left arm that featured two young girls in a backyard, playing with a dog. On his chest, these same girls were now in their teens and joined at a dinner table by a middle-aged woman. Where the head should have been showed a man looking in a mirror, directly at the video camera, shaving, combing his hair and examining some wrinkles. The outlines made by both of his legs had images of soldiers doing athletic activities together as a team: push-ups or running. His right arm played a movie about war. Guns being fired, explosions, and general chaos.

Daniel got out of the bed and walked down the row. The overt symbolism annoyed Daniel as he observed each person with their own collection of home-movies. Daniel's abilities allowed him to see these sorts of things just as plainly while he was awake, and now his subconscious was making him see it as he dreamed. He glanced back to the bed. He saw himself still lying there.

The version of himself laying in the bed looked more monstrous and disheveled than he thought he looked in reality. His hair and facial hair were long again, as it had been before shaving in the ambulance. His cheeks looked sunken and the color of his skin was as pale as a corpse. The fingernails on the hand that was resting on his stomach were at least an inch long and curved over his fingertips like the talons of a bird. The cloths he wore were the scrubs he'd been wearing for so many weeks in the cell. They were worn and filthy.

Daniel looked down at his own hands. His fingernails were clean and short. His skin was as tanned as he had been on Abydos a decade ago. He touched the top of his head, his face, and ran a finger across his teeth. His hair was cut short, his beard was shaved and the fangs were gone.

The version of himself on the bed was a grotesque version of his infected self and the one standing was the ideal version of his healthy self.

Another out-lined person walked in from the hall. This person didn't have a movie playing. He or she was just a shadow. The shadow walked down the row, past the healthy Daniel, and stopped beside the deformed Daniel who was still laying in the bed. Because this shadow didn't have a face or clothing, Daniel couldn't tell what the shadow was doing beside his bed.

The standing Daniel walked towards himself and the shadow.

The shadow raised something above it's head and brought it down swiftly onto Daniel's chest.

A very real pain shot through his chest and an icy cold swept through his body from head to toe.

Everything went dark.

Daniel opened his eyes, but he couldn't see anything. No air came into his lungs and no sound came out when he tried to talk. He couldn't feel anything. He wasn't even sure if he was lying down or standing, asleep or awake. This state of numbness and non-existence seemed to last an eternity.

A BOOM from somewhere close-by sent the pain back through his body before the silence swallowed him again for an immeasurable length of time..

Another BOOM and he gasped for air from the pain of every nerve in his body burning but he still couldn't intake a breath. Silence.

BOOM. The pain came again but he had a blurry glimpse of the floor of the infirmary smeared with bright red and dark black before it all went dark again.

BOOM-thud. He was aware of the dimensions of his body again as the nearly unbearable pain returned to every part of him. He was on his knees facing the floor with both hands outstretched to hold him up.

BOOM-thud. He put his hand to his chest and actually felt his hand touching the fabric. Silence for only a moment -

BOOM-thud. He gasped for air and felt his lungs inflating.

BOOM-thud. His cough was wet and it rattled his whole body.

BOOM-thud. The pain was constant in his chest but the rest of him had a tingling, pins-and-needles sensation...

BOOM-thud... The world returned, but his eyesight was still distorted and there was a high-pitched whistle where normal sounds should have been.

BOOM-thud... It was his own heart beating again at a normal rhythm.

Daniel kept his right hand pressed to his chest, staring at the bloody floor. He was on his knees and leaning on his left arm. He could see shapes and color but no details, and his eyes were stinging. The tips of his fingers on both hands were black. As his circulation returned, he watched the black change to grey but still not the same color as his arms. The tingling was being replaced by a warmth and by his thirst. The sounds in the room were muffled by the ringing in his ears, and he couldn't hear anyone's thoughts. Daniel didn't react to the movements or sounds.

He could taste the fresh blood in his mouth and he had no idea what happened.

Daniel continued to ignore whatever the din of people around him was saying and he moved himself into a sitting position. His feet were bare. From lack of circulation the color of his toes matched his fingers, and were just as covered in blood. His joints were stiff. Guns were being pointed at him now - two people were standing with their arms positioned in a way that would only be useful when holding a handgun. He looked around the room, eager for someone or something to jog his supposedly perfect memory. It all looked too bright and the fuzzy images reminded of the way the world looked years ago when he wasn't wearing his glasses.

Daniel looked down at his chest, lifting his hand away. The blue scrubs he had been given in the ambulance were soaked black by his own blood. The tear in his shirt revealed a three-inch wide and one inch deep indentation in his chest. The hole and muscles had healed, but several layers of skin were still missing. It had stopped bleeding but his whole chest hurt badly.

As disoriented as he was, it finally occurred to him what happened.

This same thing had happened to him just once before as part of an NID experiment: he had been staked through the heart with a piece of wood. In retrospect, Daniel was sure the stake could have been made of any material and still yielded the same result. The documents from Breck's world clearly predicted what the result would be if he had an injury this severe, but the NID continued to test the validity of these books. His heart had stopped and the parasites had taken full control. He still had no personal memory of the roughly twelve minutes from being impaled to regaining "consciousness." When he'd woken up there were three bodies on the floor: an armed guard, a nurse, and the prisoner that he later learned had been supplied with the wooden weapon.

At present, three security soldiers stood in front of him, guns aimed, barking orders at him. The third man had arrived when Daniel was examining his injury. Daniel could hear both their words and their thoughts very clearly now, and he reached into their minds and memories to find out what happened.

One of them had seen the very last moments of the event: Daniel, zombie-like and expressionless, was holding a dead soldier by the collar and threw her at the wall. The body passed into the cement wall, but her boots still peeked through. The onlooker, Jeremy Steckard, had a moment of pure terror strike him when Daniel looked at him. The whites of Daniel's eyes were a solid red making the contrast between Daniel's white skin, red eyes, and bloody mouth all the more nightmarish. Daniel took one step towards the witness, and fell to his knees, a puppet with his string cut. Daniel's expression showed pain as he fell forward onto his hands.

After that, Daniel already knew what happened.

The second guard to arrive, Kyle Goddard, took in the scene as he rushed into the room. The bed Daniel had been napping on was overturned and soaked in dark blood. A shaft of sharpened wood, possible a chair leg and also bloody, was laying on the floor beside where Daniel was on his hands and knees. There was a dead soldier on the floor near the head of the bed and two boots were sticking out of the wall behind the bed.

Daniel pulled himself out of that memory. The face of the man on the floor was the same as the first man he'd seen in the dream; it was the man looking at himself in the mirror with a wife and two daughters at the dinner table.

Daniel's own vision was still too blurry to see what these two soldiers had seen. He looked into the mind of the final soldier, Thomas Higgins, for any other details. There were no patients in the infirmary and the nurse on duty, although a soldier, had been evacuated. Dr. Carolyn Lam, the head of the medical department, would ordinarily have remained, but she had been in a private briefing with General Landry and Colonel O'Neil on a lower level when Daniel was attacked. About two minutes before Higgins arrived in the room he'd heard gunfire and observed a handful of used bullets on the floor by Dr. Jackson.

Daniel rubbed his eyes. They were still burning and the blurriness hadn't improved. Daniel's hearing was back to being as sharp as ever. He could hear each of the soldiers' hearts beating rapidly and his own thirst was growing with every beat. His mouth was so dry he could barely swallow.

More security people were arriving. The original three were still trying to make Daniel do something, and Daniel was still ignoring them. Even without sight his other senses told his where each person was in the room.

Daniel tried to speak, but blackish blood came up into his mouth from his lungs and he coughed so hard it made his head throb. Each beat of his heart caused a dark cloud to form and fade in his already blurry vision. He needed more blood and soon.

Janet had been in a lab one level up when she heard the emergency call go over the radio. She had just stepped into the room, her weapon drawn. She put her free hand to her mouth to prevent herself from allowing sound to escape. The blood and the bodies were more like a battlefield than a recovery room.

Daniel cleared his throat and tried again to speak, selecting only the most important words. "Check security cameras." His voice was a gravely low whisper and he felt like still had something in his lungs. "Rogue NID might still be on base."

The security team was still barking orders and hadn't heard him.

Daniel glared up at them from the floor and used his abilities to speak directly into the heads of all five security personnel. _A rogue NID agent might still be on the base. They used me as a distraction. Get someone to check the security cameras before they escape._

No one was speaking now. They were all too stunned. They clearly heard his voice, but they hadn't seen his lips moving.

Daniel looked towards Janet, his expression softening. _Someone was here, _he told her. _They were wearing one of the NID devices so I wouldn't hear them. They knew exactly what to do to me to cause the biggest distraction. I can't see and I don't remember what happened. I don't want to hurt anyone else, but I need something to drink._

Janet holstered her weapon. The whites of Daniel's eyes were blood red like any villain in a truly terrifying horror movie, but she knew he was telling the truth. "Everyone lower your weapons and back away. Whatever happens _do not _fire your weapons," Janet ordered to the semi-circle. She ran into the storage room to get a package of blood from the refrigerator.

Daniel's shadowed vision wasn't clearing completely between his heartbeats. He was so thirsty…

The five soldiers seemed confused by the order. They all started to back away, guns still aimed at Daniel.

Faster than the soldiers could see, Daniel was on his feet and had the closest soldier pinned against the wall. Daniel froze, his mind catching up with what his body was doing.

The soldiers raised their weapons, still conflicted about the orders not to fire.

"Daniel!" Janet shouted, two packages of blood in her hands as she skidded to a halt rounding the corner out of the room.

Daniel pushed the soldier away and backed slowly towards the place he had been sitting.

The four other soldiers gave Daniel even more space, but didn't lower their guns.

Goddard, the soldier who had been grabbed, recovered quickly and aimed his weapon at Daniel again, rejoining the defensive line.

Even to Daniel it was all a blur. He lowered himself back to the floor, using all of his strength to focus on staying exactly where he was in spite of every instinct telling him to do the opposite. His heart was beating so fast that he could feel the darkness swallowing him again.

Janet cautiously inched past the armed men, a package of blood held out in front of her.

Daniel ripped it from her hand and was back on the floor drinking it more quickly than anyone could track with their eyes. Even Daniel wasn't sure he'd moved, but he knew he was drinking from something that wasn't a person. He closed his eyes, allowing the act to bring him some of the relief he was so desperate for.

Janet stood absolutely still for a moment, stunned and frightened by his speed and his ravenous state. She crouched slightly and gently tossed the other package into Daniel's lap before she backed away. Janet calmed herself, pushing away the shock and allowing her training to guide her. She pulled her radio to her mouth to speak into it. "The situation in the infirmity had been resolved. Unauthorized person or persons may still be on the premises. Implement immediate security lockdown and establish checkpoints on every floor."

All five guards didn't react immediately, again unsure if they had heard her correctly.

"You have your orders," Janet told the gathering of soldiers.

The two guards who arrived late turned away from Daniel and rushed back into the hall. As they passed Dr. Fraiser they muttered. "Yes, Ma'am."

One of the three remaining guards, the guard named Goddard who had been briefly grabbed by Daniel, backed over to Dr. Fraiser, his gun still aimed. "Ma'am? You saw what he did. I would like to report that this has _not _been resolved."

Dr. Fraiser looked at him seriously. "Dr. Jackson is not the primary threat right now. At this point, he needs medical attention. When we know the base is secure we can resume this investigation."

"Yes, Ma'am," Goddard said, lowering his weapon.

"Check the surveillance of this room. Find out who was in here right before Dr. Jackson... Before all of _this _happened."

"Yes, Ma'am." Goddard hurried out of the room.

Daniel had finished the first package and picked up the second from his lap. He laid it on the floor in front of him, staring at it. He looked up at Janet. _Can you get me the equipment for a transfusion?_

Janet approached the remaining two soldiers, Steckard and Higgins. "Stay where you are." She looked down at Daniel. "Are you sure?"

Daniel nodded. "Please," he whispered.

The soldiers lowered their guns but didn't holster them, watching Daniel.

Janet stepped into the other room and returned with the tubing and needle.

Daniel had been looking at the package this whole time, dazed, with his back leaning against the broken bed. The blood on his hands was beginning to dry and every tickling breath verified that his clothing was becoming pasted to his skin by it. Most of this blood was his own, but every few breaths he would catch the scent of the blood from both dead soldiers. Daniel's senses would automatically lock in on one of the living soldiers and send a renewed energy through his body. If he acted on this sensation he had no doubt all of his pain would stop completely. Instead, he would focus again on the floor or his hands, letting the energy fade until he caught the scent again.

Janet returned with a transfusion kid and stopped beside the guards, unsure if she should get any closer. "Can you manage?"

Daniel looked towards her and nodded. _Just hook it up to one of the rolling stands and I'll do the rest_ he said in her head. It was an emergency situation, but he wanted to hold himself to only accepting his nourishment intravenously in all situations where he had free will. The NID had infiltrated this safe place and violated him one more time, but he needed to prove to himself that he could find a way to be around people again in spite of this condition.

"Can you move over to another bed?" Janet asked.

Daniel shook his head. "After." If he moved again there was every chance he still wouldn't be able to control himself. The world was blurry, and his chest and lungs still ached. The sudden movements he'd made mindlessly left his joints and muscles feeling weak and unsteady. He needed a transfusion and more time to heal.

Janet looked around. An unused IV stand was against the wall a few paces behind her. She quickly threaded the transfusion tubes. The stand's wheels were very nimble so she rolled it over toward Daniel's hand, careful to not get too close to him.

Daniel saw the thin shape glide towards. He caught the stand by the pole and quickly attached the tubing to the bag. He'd never started a transfusion on anyone before, but with Janet so close he could pull the instructions directly from her mind. As effortlessly as any nurse, he assembled the kit and inserted the transfusion needle into the vein on the inside of his left elbow. He unhooked a clamp and the blood began to flow into his arm. The effects were immediate, but so subtle compared to drinking it that he wondered if it might just be postponing his recovery. Leaving his physical health below a certain threshold caused his barbaric instincts to keep focusing on innocent people. He leaned against the bed again and closed his eyes, doing all he could to get lost in his own mind rather than hearing what others were thinking.

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Jack, Landry, and Dr. Lam walked into the infirmary. The new arrivals stopped just inside the doorway to survey the horrific scene.

The soldiers, now dead at least thirty minutes, had not been moved or attended to in any way. They noticed boot-soles protruding from the wall were about three feet off the floor. Most of the floor where Daniel was still sitting had a thin layer of dried blood smeared on it, and there were a handful of dented bullets scattered on the floor. The bed against which Daniel was propped was so blood-stained it looked like someone had simply poured red paint directly onto the sheets. Daniel, himself, was in no better shape than the sheets. His face, mouth, hands, legs, and hair were all smeared with blotches of red, but the front of his shirt was completely soaked.

Daniel didn't open his eyes or react to the newcomers. He was able to see all of these observations through their eyes.

Dr Fraiser and the same two security guards were still standing several feet away from Daniel. They were so focused on watching him that none of them noticed the new arrivals.

Daniel's eyes shot open and he tried to speak. "Are they all dead?" It came out more like a croak, and he was sent into another wet coughing fit. The last time he had recovered from the punctured heart his voice hadn't returned to normal for several hours, and his lungs hadn't recovered for days. In this situation, however, his injuries were actively being treated. His vision was still not as sharp as usual, but it had improved.

Jack answered. "Yep."

Janet and the two guards jumped, looking behind them to see their superiors.

Startling the trio flared Daniel's hunting instincts. His eyes narrowed and darted over to the trio. Daniel clenched his teeth and looked back to Jack, trying again to close out the sounds and smells of the room. The package of blood was nearly empty and he already knew another would be required.

"Who, sir?" Janet asked calmly.

"All five rogue NID we brought back from where they had Daniel," Jack continued. "Someone slipped them pills. When we started the sweeps the prisoners were already dead. The surveillance is being looked at right now. We didn't catch anyone on the base that isn't supposed to be here. In about twenty minutes we're having base personnel check in again. That's when we'll know if anyone is missing."

"Why haven't things been cleaned up?" Landry demanded.

Janet and the two guards stood up a little straighter. "Dr. Jackson wasn't well enough to move, Sir," Janet replied formally.

"Have you identified the deceased?" Landry continued.

"Sergeant David Roberts is on the floor, Sir," Janet replied.

The guard who had witnessed the end of the scuffle, Steckard, spoke next, "And Airman Annie Matthews is… Well, Sir, she's in the wall."

Daniel looked down at the floor.

Jack took a few steps towards Daniel. "What the _hell_ happened in here?"

"Sir," Janet said quickly. "It's best if you not get too close."

Jack stopped, realizing she was probably right. His friend had already killed two people and he'd only been back on the base a few hours.

"His injuries were extensive," she added quickly.

Jack glanced back at her before looking down at Daniel for answers. "How extensive?"

Daniel slowly reached down and picked up the bloody piece of wood to show. "Through the heart and one lung," he whispered, finally able to speak without immediately choking. He dropped the wood to the floor, not looking back at Jack. He pointed to some of the mangled bullets on the floor near his feet. "Maybe shot, too. I don't remember," Daniel gestured absently behind him to indicate the dead Sergeant and the state of the room.

"But you're sure there was an NID guy in here with you?" Jack asked.

Daniel nodded, his voice coming out hoarsely again. "Hard to speak. Can I show you?"

"No," Jack said quickly, remembering McKay's experience. "No, I think I'll pass on finding out what it feels like to be stabbed through the heart and lung. Talk in my head, but don't do that memory stuff."

Daniel did his best to explain his interpretation of the dream and how he was not aware of what he did to the airmen. He went on to warn Jack that the rogue NID knew what would happen if they stopped his heart, giving them enough time to do whatever they wanted to do on the base while Daniel was behaving violently.

Jack nodded a little when Daniel was done.

_Can you show me the surveliance video?_ Daniel asked.

"I'll bring you a copy after you've gotten yourself cleaned up," Jack said out loud.

"Thank you," Daniel said quietly, trying not to set off more coughing.

"Dr. Jackson," Dr Lam said, speaking to him for the first time. "Do you need another transfusion?"

Daniel didn't react at first, then he looked at Dr. Lam and nodded.

"Can you lay down over there, please?" Dr Lam said in a tone that was less of a suggestion and more of an order. She pointed at the bed Janet had suggested earlier and then walked into another room to get the package of blood.

Daniel slowly pushed himself to his feet. Every muscle ached and his heart was beating slightly faster as he stood, as were the hearts of the six healthy people in the room with him. He put one hand to his chest, clenched his teeth, and looked at the floor.

Jack took the lead. "You two wait over there," he told the guards, pointing to the office door at least ten more feet away from Daniel's destination.

The two guards stationed themselves by the office door.

"All SG Teams are grounded, so, Fraiser, you stick around with Dr. Lam. Right now, you know more about this parasite than she does. Both of you decide an alternative place for regular patients to come until we can decontaminate this room."

"Yes, Sir," Janet told him

Jack turned to Landry. "We should keep focusing on the dead prisoners and the surveillance. SG-5 is the only team still off-world. When are they due to check-in?"

"They should check in sometime in the next thirty minutes," Landry answered.

"When they check-in, have them come back home. We need the base business back to normal before we send any teams out."

Landry nodded. "I couldn't agree more."

Jack glanced back at Daniel, who still wasn't moving towards the bed. "Your quarters are ready, but you're not leaving this room until you've recovered. Understood?"

Daniel nodded a little, still looking at the floor. "Thanks, Jack," he whispered, grateful that his friend's mind hadn't completely changed about keeping him at the SGC in spite of this incident. Knowing this latest incident was related more to NID sabotage than Daniel acting independently still left Jack feeling 80/20 in favor of Daniel staying at the SGC.

Jack and Landry left.

Dr. Lam walked over to the clean bed and waited patiently for Daniel, the package ready to hook into the existing IV tubes.

Daniel rolled the IV stand beside him as he walked unsteadily towards the new bed. The distance of the guards was helpful, but Dr. Lam and Janet were still a little too close.

Dr. Lam slipped on her gloves. Daniel was still a few feet away, taking his time with the movement. "Can you take off your shirt? I would like to examine you."

Daniel stopped walking and shook his head. "One more transfusion," he said very quietly, his eyes on the floor. "Still not safe."

Dr. Lam was not used to patients arguing with her. "The old reports about this parasite were taken by the NID the day they removed you form the base. I've been reading today's reports from Dr Fraiser and General O'Neill. Would you really heal more quickly if you _drank_ this?" She was still holding the bag. As others before her, she had some strong doubts about how accurate the discription of _vampire _was. She had two bodies on the other side of her room, but she was still not fully convined.

Daniel nodded, still not walking closer and not looking directly at her. He tried to explain it accurately but in as few words as possible. He still spoke at a whisper, just loudly enough for the two doctors to hear. "NID used psychological techniques. If I was hungry and someone had a heartbeat, that person was food."

"Classic conditioning?" Janet asked.

Dr. Lam looked at her. " Really? The old ring a bell, feed a dog, ring a bell, dog gets hungry routine?"

Daniel nodded and looked up at Dr. Lam. His mouth was dry, and she was just a few steps out of his reach. "Anyone with a heartbeat makes me hungry," he admitted. "_Drinking _reinforces the behavior." Daniel suddenly had a nearly irresistible tickly in his chest. He avoided the cough by speaking directly into Dr Lam's head. _Leave the bag. I can hook up the IV myself._ He cleared his throat, still trying to prevent a coughing fit. _You should take care of Sergeant Roberts. I can get the Airman's remains out of the wall when I'm stronger._

Dr. Lam was a little jarred by the voice she heard. "That was you, right?"

Daniel nodded, still watching her. Her heart had sped up, and she was so close he knew he could close the gap before anyone knew what he was doing… He dropped his gaze back to the floor, concentrating on controlling this impulse. This constant battle was exhausting.

The doctor put down the bag on top of the bed and looked over at Janet. "Will you help me with the preliminary examination of Sergeant Roberts? Daniel has asked for a little more time to rest."

Janet looked over to Daniel, sympathetically, then back to Dr. Lam. "Of course."

Both women took a wide turn past Daniel to get to the deceased.

Daniel continued over to the bed and began to hook up the new transfusion before laying down.

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Daniel opened his eyes quickly, disoriented and a little confused. He was still in the infirmary. He'd been so tense that he didn't think he could have fallen asleep, but he was feeling much better. More than an hour had passed since he laid down on this bed. His eyes were still stinging but his eyesight had fully recovered.

Dr. Lam had been joined by two nurses. Everyone in the room was fitted with disposable aprons, long-wrested rubber gloves, basic medical masks and sanitary shoe covers. The three nurses were holding UV lights and methodically shining them on all the surfaces in the corner. As the light hit these surfaces, sparks flared and faded.

Janet had been sent into another room to supervise the temporary infirmary.

The same guards were still standing by the office door, watching Daniel. They put their hands on their weapons when they saw Daniel's eyes open.

Sergeant Roberts' body had been removed, as had the bullets, wooden stake, and bed where Daniel was attacked. The boots of the dead Airman, however, were still sticking out of the wall where they had been before.

Daniel looked at the IV stand. It had been rolled several feet away from the bed. Two empty bags hung on the hook next to a half-full package. Someone had changed it and Daniel hadn't even noticed. He looked at his hands then looked down at his feet. His fingertips and toes were finally the same pale shade as the rest of his skin.

A tray had also been placed within reach of the bed. On top was a full glass of water, a package of skin-cleaning wipes, and a small trashcan with a biohazard bag as a liner. Janet had been the one who left them, he realized. She knew when he was well enough he would be allowed to leave and take a shower in the room fitted with UV water filters, but his blood-drenched appearance was too ghastly to walk through the base without some clean-up beforehand.

Daniel drained the glass of water then pulled the cleaning wipes from the dispenser and began wiping his face. It had taken six wipes before his face and hands were clean. He wasn't sure if he should try to slip the shirt off. By now all the blood was dry and the more he moved the more his tainted blood flaked onto the bed around him.

According to the research in the books, and the verifications by the NID scientists, the parasites present in small amounts of his blood could be left in the air for a short time and would die when they were starved. The amount of blood present in this room, on himself, and on his clothing would likely keep the parasites viable for several hours if not managed in the way this medical team was methodically decontaminating the area.

Dr Lam noticed Daniel's movement, shut off her light, and walked towards him. She paused a few paces from the bed. "How are you feeling?"

Daniel cleared his throat before taking. "Better, I think." His voice was still raspy, but speaking didn't cause the same tickle.

"Are you well enough for me to examine you?" From where she was standing she could see the whites of his eyes were still severely bloodshot, but no longer pure red. She noticed the improved shade of his fingers, but the tare in his shirt wasn't wide enough to show the original source of the bleeding.

If he was being honest, right now he felt better and calmer than he had in a long time. Considering the price for this peace included two dead people, he wasn't going to mention it. The only things still not feeling right were his sensitive eyes and the heavy feeling in his lungs. The active transfusion wasn't leaving him as manic as the other treatments had. Maybe he had finally been pulled out of a perpetual state of starvation.

"Yes," Daniel answered simply after those few moments of reflection.

Dr. Lam approached the bed purposefully, pulling the stethoscope out of her pocket. She laid it on his chest, listening.

Daniel had to reassess the conclusions he'd just made. With Dr. Lam so near he was thrown back into the same cycle of fighting the strong impuse to grab onto her.

"Take a deep breath." She moved the stethoscope. "The let it out slowly."

Daniel took in a deep breath, but turned away from her immediately and covered his mouth in a coughting fit.

The doctor pulled back until his coughing quieted. "It sounds like you have a pulmonary edema - fluid in your lungs. Considering the amount of tissue damage already repaired, I'd guess it's just a side effect of the way the parasite is healing you. Your eyes are also very bloodshot, a subconjunctival hemorrhage. That means it was either from the rapid blood pressure increase after the blood loss, severe dry eye, or from the lack of oxygen while you were, well, _dead_."

"Both will get better. Same happened before," he whispered, resuming a cautious approach to speaking.

Dr Lam ignored the comment for the moment. She reached onto the counter and came back with some scissors. "I'd like to look at your injury before you go to your quarters."

Daniel nodded, preparing again for the close interaction.

The doctor used the scissors to cut at the cloth from his neck to his sleeve, then from the sleeve down his side so the needle in his arm wouldn't be disturbed. She peeled away the crusty shirt and carefully placed it in the biohazard bag. "I'll be right back." She dropped the scissors in the biohazard bag on her way to her office.

Daniel took a moment to grab another skin cleaning wipe and blotted at the spot where his skin had been pierced. He looked down at the injury, just as curious as the doctor.

The doctor returned with a flashlight and looked closely at Daniel's chest as he finished his third wiping cloth and dropped it in the bin.

The place of impact had the glossy shine of healed skin after a scab had fallen off.

"Lean forward please," the doctor said. As he moved she found a pink patch of healing skin on his back below his left shoulder blade. There were also a dozen dime-sized pink dots. Half of these dots were clumped at the center of his back. "Looks like the stick went all the way through, and you were shot in the back at close range. You can lean back."

He rested his back against the bed again.

"Do you remember who shot you?" Dr. Lam asked.

"D'know," he whispered so quickly it came out as one word.

She bent in close and touched the fresh skin on his chest. "Does this hurt?"

He shook his head. His heart was racing. This was almost as bad as the time spent in the elevator shaft with Jack and McKay. His hands gripped tightly to the bed's frame.

"I'd like to look at your eyes. Is that all right? I realize they are sensitive to light."

Daniel nodded again, still not talking, and looked up directly at her.

"I'll do this as fast as possible." She shone the light in each of his eyes quickly, testing their response to light. The pupils were dilated beyond the usual size and didn't react. They did, however, reflect the light back as a golden shine, like a deer or a cat. Only a thin layer of blue was visible at the outer edge of his iris. "Look all the way to your right." She only had the light in his eyes another second before shutting it off. The broken capillaries causing the red stain and bloodshot pattern were worse nearer the pupil and faded to white farther out.

Daniel shut his eyes tightly. She had kept her promise, but those few seconds had seemed as bright as looking into the sun. With his eyes shut he was seeing black spots where the light had been.

"Open your mouth." She shone the light to the back of his throat then looked at his teeth, before shutting the light off again. It wasn't until that moment that the word _vampire_ finally slid into her diagnostic vocabulary.

He closed his mouth, his teeth clenching.

"I can tell the exam wasn't easy for you." Dr Lam put her flashlight back into her pocket and took a few steps away from the bed. "Is this better?"

Daniel's eyes were still shut, but when she moved away it felt like an oppressive weight had miraculously been lifted. The feeling of calm and composure he had been feeling before the doctor approached. He opened his eyes, still seeing spots from the light. "Better."

"Your eyes weren't reacting to the light. Is that normal?"

"Normal." Daniel reached up and rubbed his eyes.

"Have you had this type of injury in the past? You mentioned _before_."

"Once," he said simply.

Now that Dr. Lam was willing to believe that the files she had read about Daniel were accurate, she had dozens of questions pop into her head. "Can you tell me what the recovery time was like? Do you know why you can't remember? Is there…"

"Stop," Daniel said quietly, interrupting her. His hand was still near his face he tapped his head with his finger before rubbing his eyes again. "I know." He opened his eyes and coughed, the tickle returning to his chest. _I don't remember because if my hearts stops, I black out until my heart starts again. The parasites take over for survival. The last time the NID arranged for person to put a piece of wood through my heart, I killed three people before I woke up. The NID knew it would happen but they still let some of their own people die along with a prisoner._

"Just want to be sure you're talking to me," Dr. Lam said out loud, nervously.

"Yes," Daniel said aloud and continued to speak into her head._ I black out in almost the same way if I'm starving. My heart slows down but doesn't stop. After four days I completely lose control. I can only remember some of it. The books say I could live for ten days like that before I would finally die. They let me go seven days once. I woke up with one person dead and another unconscious and missing enough blood to be infected. That person never woke up. They put him into the incinerator when he was still in a coma._

Dr. Lam was very good at hiding her emotions from people she worked with. Hiding them didn't mean she wasn't hurting from them. No good doctor could stop from feeling. Hearing how Daniel had been tortured sent a wave of intense sadness and sympathy through her. She had read all she could about Dr. Jackson when she was informed of his return, and someone like him didn't deserve that type of treatment… if anyone could ever deserve it. She allowed her expression to soften, but gave no other sign.

Daniel, of course, had felt what she was hiding, so he moved on to the next question she wondered. _Healing time for this injury is a little tricky to pin down. The NID removed the bodies but waited until the next day to bring me anything else to drink. For almost a week after that, they only brought me one package of blood a day and two bottles of water. I could barely function and I wasn't healing. After a week they went back to two packages a day and would deliver water by the case. This still wasn't enough. They kept me weak so I couldn't, or wouldn't, resist. If I receive more transfusions I can heal faster. I can drink any blood type, but if I get a transfusion I need my own blood type or a universal donor._

"I-I discussed that with the General and the Colonel," Dr. Lam studded, the details of his life finally too disturbing to completely hide her shock. She composed herself and continued. "We decided you should report to the infirmary every six hours unless you're sleeping. Let someone here know before you go to bed, but come as soon as you wake up."

Daniel nodded._ With that schedule my lungs might be clear by tomorrow._

"Usual blood transfusion safety protocol doesn't recommend a transfusion any faster than one unit per hour unless there's been a massive blood loss. We've been giving you transfusions at almost twice the recommended speed since your injury. Are you noticing any side effects? Chills, dizziness, back pain or chest pain - aside from the physical injury? You know this parasite better than anyone. Do you feel this rapid method should be standard procedure for each of your scheduled visits?"

"Fast is better," Daniel wheezed. He cleared his throat, frustrated by his inability to speak. _The needle in my arm keeps me on edge_, he added in her head.

"Be back in a second," Dr. Lam said, goin back towards the supply area.

Daniel shut his eyes again, trying to rest his mind. The transfusion he was being given had finished. He pulled the needle out. Another wave of tension dissipated. Sitting quietly he was not in pain, or being influenced by the dining parasites, nor was he hungry or thirsty. No person was closer than ten feet away, and the general number of people on the base turned their combined thoughts into a soft white noise. If all of these conditions could be met regularly, he was finally sure living on this base was a possibility.

The two nurses had finished using the UV lights.

The Doctor came back into the room rolling a steel metal table. She parked the table near where the nurses were standing. On top was a folded black t-shirt and shoe-protection booties. She picked up the cloths and brought them to Daniel, stopping short of his bed to talk.

Daniel opened his eyes.

"You should take a shower in your quarters. There are fresh cloths there. Put everything you're wearing into a biohazard bag. You need some clothing to wear on your way." She held out the cloths and she took another step towards Daniel.

He reached out and took the cloths, cautious about his proximity to her. Nothing out of the ordinary stirred as the space between them met and began to grow again.

Dr. Lam stepped back to where she had been talking. "A couple things before you leave."

Daniel slipped the shirt over his head, already knowing what she wanted but not stopping the inquiry.

"Colonel O'Neill mentioned the restraints used on you at the facility," Dr Lam started. "Are they healing normally?"

Daniel swung his feet over the bed and slipped the shoe covered over his bare feet. His feet were still caked with blood, so the covers should prevent tracking whatever was left of the parasite around the base. He extended both of his arms towards Dr. Lam, wrists up to show where the marks should be.

Dr. Lam leaned forward, looking closely at the marks, but not touching. He flipped his arms over to show the other side. All that remained was a pink dot the diameter of a pencil eraser on the front and back of each forearm.

"Gone by tomorrow, too," he whispered.

Dr. Lam nodded, stepping back again. "And the other concern is Airman Matthews…"

Daniel nodded and stood.

Dr. Lam went back to the rolling table. She looked over to the two nurses. "Jennifer, can you get Dr. Fraiser? "

"Yes, Ma'am." Jennifer removed her gloves and her booties before leaving the room.

"And Sarah, can you wait over there."

Sarah walked over to where the guards were standing.

Dr. Lam rolled the cart into position near where the bed had been, just feet from the wall where the Airman's remains were stuck.

Daniel walked back to the wall, too, his left shoulder against the wall. He placed his right hand on one of the boots before reaching into the wall with his left hand. Daniel bent his upper half into the wall, then reached into the wall with his right hand as well. When he leaned back out he was cradling the soldier's body under the knees and at the back. He adjusted his grip and pulled away from the wall completely.

The security guard and remaining nurse didn't say anything, transfixed. There was no question in anyone's mind that she was dead. They were all thinking about Daniel in the way McKay had done at first and as every scientist and soldier he had met when he was held by the NID: Daniel was some vicious monster that needed to be locked away for the safety of others.

Daniel clenched his teeth as he stood up straight and placed the woman's body on the metal cart. Her neck had a ragged tear and her uniform was covered in blood. He backed away, the fresh scent of blood too stimulating.

Dr Lam bent over the soldier with a new stethoscope, listening for any signs of life.

"She was dead before the wall," Daniel said quietly.

"What happens when someone is alive when you leave them in a wall?" the doctor asked, still performing the final tests before declaring someone dead.

"Suffocation," he whispered, risking one last word.

Dr Lam had finished the quick exam. She looked over at the security guards. "Are you Dr. Jackson's security detail?"

"Yes Ma'am," Steckard replied.

Daniel looked over at them. They had been thinking about plenty of other things, but now Daniel decided if they were going to be following him around all the time he should at least know exactly who they were.

The one who answered Dr. Lam was the one who had witnessed him putting Airman Matthrews into the wall. His name was Jeremy Steckard, age 30. He was a Sergeant, grew up outside of Denver, but now he lived about twenty minutes from the base with his wife, Celeste, and their baby daughter, Kate. He'd been working at the SGC for almost five years.

The other soldier was also a Sergeant. His name was Thomas Higgins, or Tommy to his friends. He was 33, never married, and currently lived on base. He'd only found out about the Stargate a month ago, and was on a fast track to be part of a future SG Team. What he'd observed of Daniel's _situation_ was making him reconsider off-world travel altogether.

Had Daniel's voice been working properly he might have taken this opportunity to assure Tommy that Daniel's situation was rare, or tell them both that he had no intention of being a difficult assignment. Saying any of this directly into their heads after all they'd seen him do would have done more harm than good. Daniel didn't say anything.

Dr Fraiser came into the room with Jennifer.

"I'd like you to escort him to his new quarters," Dr Lam continued to the soldiers. She glanced at the clock on the wall then looked at Dr. Jackson. "It's after 20:00. I'd like you to get some rest after you clean up. You've had a long day. Set an alarm. I want to see you back in this room promptly at 06:00. We'll hold you to the 6 hour rule after you've had a solid night's sleep, but if you need to come in sooner all staff will be aware of your treatment protocols."

"Surveillance footage?" Daniel asked.

Dr Lam nodded. With all the excitement, she'd forgotten. "I'll let the Colonel know you'll be in your room. He's called a meeting for tomorrow morning at 08:00 to review the security breech. You will be asked to attend. There are still certain aspects of your infection that we need to address."

"I already have some of your blood samples running in my lab," Janet added. "There's a laptop in your room. I agree with Dr. Lam that you should rest tonight, but while you're receiving the transfusion tomorrow morning it might be helpful if you compose a report with more details about the parasite. When the NID took you, they took all of my samples, computer data, and even the briefing report you were giving when they arrived. I won't have much of a starting point without your help."

"I'll have something for…" he started at full voice but coughed before he could finish. Finally something useful for him to do and he still couldn't talk. Daniel nodded and gave her a thumbs up.

"Get some rest," Dr Lam said to Daniel. She turned to Dr. Fraiser. "We should examine the Airman's remains."

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Daniel was sitting on top of the covers in bed, reading papers from a manila folder and scribbling notes on a pad of paper. The only light on in the room was a small 7 watt night light attached directly to the outlet by the bathroom door. The darkness allowed his eyes to rest, and he could see the papers clearly enough to keep working.

Whoever setup this room had left him a Merkur shaving kit on his pillow and a stack of old mission reports at the foot of his bed. Each report included photographs of engravings or copies of partly disintegrated papers written in other languages. These where reports from missions when the linguist hadn't been able to decipher what was in the picture. A fresh notepad and sharpened pencils were on the night stand. Three cases of water were stacked beside the desk and on the desk sat a closed laptop hooked to a wall charger.

Jack announced he'd come by around 10 pm, so Daniel had taken his time cleaning up. It was 9:45 pm now so Jack would be here any time..

The NID hadn't let him shower since switching from the bracelets to the manacles because they didn't know if water would cause the rudimentary technology to fail. Almost a month had passed since he'd felt fully clean. He upped the temperature of the water until he couldn't stand it and forced his lungs to cough up more of the black sludge. The drain shot out small sparks as the dirt and blood swirled down with the water. He'd used the shaving kit, too. The electric razor he'd been using at the NID - or they had been using on him - was nothing compared to shaving cream and a metal safety razor.

Daniel was also appreciative of the room's location. He was far enough from all other base operations and personnel quarters that the only clear noise was a buzz coming from the air recirculation system fitted to every quarantine room. The only clear thoughts were coming from his security detail, but the translation Daniel was working on was enough to distract him from even those whispers.

A knock came at the door and Daniel's hand jumped, breaking the tip of his pencil. He'd been so preoccupied that he hadn't noticed. His mind automatically reached towards the hall. Jack had gotten off the elevator, return a salute to the guards, and approach his door.

"Come in," Daniel called, his voice raspy, but the volume and tone no longer restricted. He shut his eyes as the door slid open, preparing for the overhead light. Without trying he knew Jack was the one who left the papers, Teal'c had given him the shaving kit, and Janet arranged for a good quality unscented soap and shampoo to be stocked in the shower and by the sink (she guessed that the perfumes might be unpleasant for his sensitive nose).

Jack hit the light switch. "Feeling better?" He had a laptop under his arm.

Daniel squinted as he opened his eyes slowly. "Pretty great, actually. Voice isn't really back. Still tight in the chest. Thanks for these old reports. They've been a good distraction. I didn't even hear you coming," he added with a smile.

"Feeling more _socialable_?" Jack asked to clarify.

Daniel nodded. "Yes, of course, come in."

Jack unfolded the laptop as he walked over to Daniel. He started hitting a few buttons to pull up the video.

Sergeant Steckard pushed the door all the way open and stepped inside also, his hand on his weapon.

Daniel stood and met Jack at the foot of the bed. "What did you find?" he asked, ignoring the guard and experimenting with closing out the answer he could have gotten from Jack's mind.

Jack didn't say anything. He handed the laptop to Daniel and used the touch-screen to press play.

Daniel watched as the video from the security camera began to play, but if he hadn't know it was a video he would have thought it was a still image. The angle of the footage was from above the door, pointed towards the bed he had been sleeping in.

Thirty seconds passed before a nurse crossed the room quietly and went into the office. Daniel was still sleeping in the bed, on his back and not moving.

Another thirty seconds passed before a person in a military uniform approached Daniel's bed. The man pulled something small from inside his pocket, pressed the item with his thumb, and laid it at the foot of Daniel's bed. The figure then reached inside his uniform, raised something above their head and brought it swiftly down onto Daniel's chest. Daniel reached for the hands that stabbed him, but Daniel's whole form went limp almost immediately. His eyes were open and unblinking.

Calmly, as if nothing had happened, the man walked out of the infirmary. He looked up at the cameras as he approached the door and winked before lowing his head again.

The man was Henry Maybourne.

More than thirty seconds passed, and Daniel remained motionless on the bed. The nurse came out of the office again, glanced towards Daniel, and kept walking calmly.

"What did Maybourne leave on the bed?' Daniel asked, still watching.

"Keep watching. We didn't recover anything but a melted circuit board," Jack said.

A minute of video had passed since Daniel was stabbed. Daniel's eyes were fixed and still not blinking. His hands moved slowly from the bed and clumsily tried to grasped the wooden shaft. After ten seconds of uncoordinated movements, Daniel started to slowly pull the stick from his chest.

The same nurse crossed through the frame again, glancing at Daniel but continuing to walk calmly.

Just over four minutes after being stabbed, Daniel had pulled the stake from his chest and he was leaning forward as if trying to sit up. There was a flare in the camera as whatever had been at the foot of Daniel's bed exploded with the sound of a firecracker. At the same moment Daniel's body position caused the medical bed to overturn.

Both guards- Sergeant Roberts and Airman Matthews - and the nurse named Alice rushed into frame.

Daniel ran at Roberts and tore into his throat, holding the Sergeant in place tightly against him with a bear hug.

Airman Matthews raised her hand gun and fired at Daniel.

The nurse ran back into her office and the intercom came on. "Security emergency in the infirmary! We need backup immediately!"

Daniel was backing towards the wall with Roberts, still holding the man and his face still pressed against the man's neck.

Matthews ran out of bullets. She pulled her baton from her vest and struck Daniel behind the knees to bring him to the floor.

Daniel didn't waiver, his face still buried in the man's neck.

Matthews raised her baton again, but Daniel dropped Roberts and grabbed onto Matthews the same way he had been holding Roberts. Matthews let out a short scream as Daniel bit down, but she didn't stop struggling.

Alice ran out of the office and escaped through the main exit.

Matthews had stopped moving and Daniel pulled her away from her, suspending her with one hand at the collar.

The first of the reinforcements arrived in the room and Daniel threw Matthews' remains towards the wall, her body passing through a portion of the cement but landing with her boots sticking out.

Daniel's attention turned to the newcomer, but before Daniel could take a second step he fell to his knees, then forward onto his hands.

Another security team member arrived.

More than eleven minutes had passed since he had been stabbed.

Daniel touched the screen of the video with his knuckle to pause the playback. He already knew what happened after that. "I don't remember any of that."

"Lights on, but nobody home." Jack took the laptop from Daniel and closed it. "Footage from the holding area was tampered with. The video was placed into a loop. The loop started about the time that thing on your bed popped."

"The nurse that walked by, what did she see?" Daniel asked him, pulling a bottle of water from the case by the desk before sitting down on the foot of the bed. "And how did Maybourne make it onto the base? Isn't his face on some kind of SGC's Most Wanted?" Daniel opened the water and drank almost half of it immediately. His body was still trying to heal. Before he went to bed he'd need another visit to the infirmary.

Jack shook his head. "The nurses saw you sleeping. I know Maybourne liked holograms and mind games so whatever was on your bed made it look like you were fine."

"The real-world the equivalent of looping a video," Daniel said quietly.

"Nobody saw Maybourne," Jack said. "He walked down a lot of hallways. We have him on just about every camera from the time he left your room. He even made it through security checkpoints. Hell, he walked out right through the front doors. McKay thinks he had some tech that could fool people but not cameras."

Daniel finished the water. "The NID used something like that for a couple years to hide vital signs and smells. Infrared and video could still see everything, but for me there wasn't a difference between a person and a hologram. Then they upgraded to the large generators. Maybe it was all from the same planet. Did anyone see how he got in?"

Jack shook his head. "He walked out of an unoccupied room on level 15, got onto the elevator to _visit_ you. Based on timestamps from surveillance cameras and checkpoint ID scans, people on this base thought they were seeing Master Sergeant Philip Miller. Miller logged off his work station a little before 1700 hours for dinner. Maybourn left the main gate using his badge at 1745, but Miller's schedule should have kept him on the base until 2100 hours. No trace of Miller yet."

Daniel paused a moment. "Do you want me to," Daniel gestured with his hand from his head towards the ceiling.

"Naw, we can do it the old fashioned way for now," Jack said casually. "We have teams looking on every floor."

"Let me know if I can help with anything around here," Daniel said eagerly.

"I've called a meeting for 08:00 tomorrow. I'd like you to be there," Jack started. "It'll just be the usual people: Landry, Dr. Lam, Fraiser, Teal'c, McKay, and Dr. Lee. Barrett is going to sit in since we're talking about Maybourne. I'll present what we just talked about. McKay is going to speculate about the technology. You know, give recommendations to stop it from happening again. Lam and Fraiser would like you to put something together for them about the parasite so they can start working on treatments. I know it's been a while, but that day the NID came for you, you were going to report about Breck's planet. If you're feeling up to it I'd like you to tell us what you found out when you went there. After the meeting you can work with McKay to build a decoder for those messages, and Teal'c still wants to start that meditation stuff with you. You're free to go to his quarters. Just don't go into the gate room or any higher up than McKay's lab."

Daniel nodded a little, finally unable to block out Jack's thoughts. "What happened to me wasn't your fault."

Jack hadn't been expecting that. "It's been a long day." He turned to the door, ready to leave. "Get some rest."

Daniel stood. "Jack," he called.

Jack stopped and turned back.

"I want this to be the last time I say this," Daniel began. "I don't blame you, so you shouldn't blame yourself. I tried to untie that girl before the house was cleared. Everything after that was damage control."

Jack smiled a little, thinking somewhat fondly of the exciting, strange missions before they really understood that some planets should never have been visited.

"You think you could have done something to protect me from the NID, but my own stubbornness was what fast-tracked the president into turning me over to them in the first place. When I went back to the planet, I proved to everyone here that I was a security threat. And my little stunt put you, Sam, and Teal'c in danger when the three of you came back to the planet to get me. Sam's paying the price. Nobody would have let me stay here after that, and they were right no keep me away. I'm not exactly happy with where I ended up, but none of it had anything to do with you. I made one reckless choice after another and none of it ended in a way any of us could have guessed. You were on my side the whole time. What's done is done. Let's just try to find Sam and figure out a treatment."

Jack considered what Daniel said. "Even back then I knew Maybourne was a sadistic, opportunistic _ass_. I never thought he'd go this far." Jack gestured at Daniel and shook his head in disgust. "You still hold the record for number of times through the gate without a firearm, and Maybourne put you in a room and made _sure _you would kill people. Then he came _here_ and pulled the same crap."

"Even if you'd have started the process to get me sent back here sooner, Maybourne would have just faked my death sooner, or made Sam disappear sooner," Daniel added. "The moment he heard about telepathy being a common side effect, he wanted to either make me or the parasite into a weapon for covert ops. When they were pretending to answer to the president, they were already developing technology that could hold me in one place. That cell, those handcuffs, the large-scale emitters… all being developed to hold me within hours of picking me up from here."

Jack still had regrets, and all of Daniel's words weren't lessening any of it.

"I forgive you for not being able to help me," Daniel added.

Jack didn't say anything else, and walked out of the room.

The Sergeant started to close the door.

"Wait," Daniel called to him. "I need to go back to the infirmary." Daniel unplugged the laptop from the wall charger and brought it with him to type while he received his treatment.


End file.
